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HISTORY  OF  SLIGO: 


TOWN    AND     COUNTY. 


VOL.    I. 


THE 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO: 


TOWN  AND  COUNTY. 


BY 

T.   O'RORKE,  D.D.,   M.R.I.A., 

AUTHOR     OP 

"BALLYSADARE  AND    KILVARNET," 


VOL.  I. 


DUBLIN: 

JAMES   DUFFY  AND   CO.,   LIMITED, 
U  &  15  WELLINGTON  QUAY. 

[Alt  rights  reserved.] 


PREFACE. 


I  HAVE  tried  to  embody,  in  the  following  pages,  the 
secular,  the  religious,  the  social,  and,  in  some  measure, 
the  natural  history  of  Sligo.  I  have  spared  no  pains 
to  collect  and  verify  the  facts  which  belong  to  the 
subject  under  each  of  these  aspects.  Knowing  the  great 
want  of  an  original  and  authentic  history  of  the  county, 
and  aiming  at  the  supply  of  the  desideratum,  I  have 
taken  nothing  at  second-hand,  but  have  gone  in  all 
cases  for  myself  to  the  sources. 

Though  disposed  at  first  to  rely,  more  or  less 
implicitly,  on  John  O'Donovan  and  the  Ordnance  Survey 
letter- writers,  I  had  not  proceeded  far  when,  finding  them 
generally  unsafe,  and  frequently  misleading  guides,  it 
became  necessary  to  trust  them,  like  others,  only  in 
proportion  to  the  weight  of  the  evidence  which  they 
bring  to  the  support  of  their  opinions.  After  demur- 
ring to  the  authority  of  O'Donovan,  as  to  the  matter  in 
hand,  it  is  almost  superfluous  to  add  that  I  set  little 
store  by  his  echoists  and  copyists — epithets  which  may 
with  justice  be  applied  to  those  who  have  written  about 
Sligo  since  his  day. 

In  saying  so  much  of  O'Donovan,  there  is  no  wish  to 
question  his  right  to  rank,  as  he  commonly  does,  as  our 
leading  modern  authority  on  the  topography  of  Ireland  ; 
and  if  I  make  bold  to  differ  from  him  rather  often,  I 
do  so  without  questioning  the  exceptional  weight  of  his 


PREFACE. 


opinions  in  relation  to  those  parts  of  Ireland,  which  he 
had  opportunities  of  studying,  an  advantage  which  he 
never  enjoyed  in  regard  to  Sligo. 

As  these  pages  are  meant  to  be  a  record  of  facts,  the 
reader  will  be  little  troubled  with  legends  and  "  the  pre- 
historic ages."  It  might  be  well  for  history,  and  par- 
ticularly for  Irish  history,  if  there  were  no  such  word  as 
pre-historic,  the  expression  is  so  often  employed  as  a 
cover  for  ignorance  or  indolence.  Once  the  theory  is 
set  up  that  certain  things  are  pre-historic,  the  student, 
instead  of  exhausting  patiently  and  laboriously  all  the 
means  within  his  reach,  finds  it  more  convenient,  on 
meeting  with  troublesome  difficulties,  to  fall  back  on  this 
theory,  and  to  class  the  object  of  his  search  as  falling 
under  it,  little  minding  that  what  is  pre-historic  for 
him  may  be  well  within  the  province  of  history  for  a 
more  intelligent  or  a  more  painstaking  inquirer.  The 
Round  Towers  were  pre-historic  for  all  the  world  till 
Dr.  Petrie  demonstrated  their  origin  and  uses. 

It  is  the  opposite  presumption,  namely,  that  all  the 
remains  of  antiquity  have  their  place  in  history  if  one 
could  only  find  it  out,  that  should  hold  the  field.  This 
principle  would  soon  lead  to  valuable  results.  With 
such  a  rule  and  stimulus  for  inquirers,  we  should  very 
probably  have  long  since  learned  all  about  various 
County  Sligo  antiquities,  which  are  now  commonly  con- 
signed to  the  limbo  of  pre-historic  times,  as,  for  example, 
the  circles  and  cromlechs  of  Carrowmore,  the  remains  at 
Moytura,  and  that  pre-historic  relic,  par  excellence,  the 
Druids'  Altar  of  Calry  Deerpark. 

And  the  suggested  method  would  have  another 
precious  result.  It  would  stop  or  curtail  the  lucubra- 


PREFACE.  Vll 


tions  of  some  modern  antiquaries  who,  as  if  they  saw 
better  in  the  dark  than  in  the  light,  have  little  or 
nothing  to  tell  while  dealing  with  historic  time,  but 
positively  luxuriate  in  description  and  detail  once  they 
enter  on  the  fancied  region  of  the  pre-historic,  where, 
they  take  it,  no  one  can  follow  and  check  them. 

Legends  may  have  their  use  in  the  proper  place,  but 
history  is  hardly  that  place.  The  more  esteemed,  recent 
historians  have  acted  on  this  principle.  John  Hill 
Burton,  who  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  latest  and 
best  historian  of  Scotland,  shows,  as  has  been  observed 
by  some  of  his  critics,  the  frankest  contempt  for  Scottish 
legend,  and  Dr.  Momsen,  in  his  "Komische  Geschichte," 
not  only  ignores  the  legends  of  the  first  book  of  Livy, 
but  ridicules  the  principle  which  induces  antiquaries 
especially  to  inquire  into  "what  is  neither  capable  of 
being  known  or  worth  the  knowing — to  inquire  who 
was  Hercules'  mother,  as  the  Emperor  Tiberius  is  said  to 
have  done." 

While  eschewing  legends  I  have  not  thought  it  right 
to  act  in  the  same  way  in  regard  to  antiquities.  Taken 
in  a  wider  and  better  sense  than  that  implied  in 
Momsen's  sneer,  antiquities  comprehend  the  remains,  as 
well  material  as  moral,  of  ancient  times  ;  so  that,  in 
regard  to  the  County  Sligo,  they  comprise  its  raths, 
cairns,  cromlechs,  giants'  graves,  fortresses,  old  castles, 
religious  houses;  the  names  and  associations  of  its 
rivers,  lakes,  hills,  mountains,  islands,  and  wells  ;  and 
the  religion,  morals,  manners,  customs,  and  pastimes  of 
its  inhabitants.  As  much  that  belongs  to  these  subjects 
is  capable  of  being  known  and  worth  the  knowing,  I 
have  studied  them  carefully  ;  nor,  it  is  hoped,  without 


PREFACE. 


success,  both  with  respect  to  themselves  and  to  other 
matters,  as  it  was  in  following  up  clues  met  with,  while 
investigating  them,  I  came  upon  the  facts  and  arguments 
which  support  the  many  novel  views  now  put  forward  in 
regard  to  the  history  both  of  the  town  and  the  county. 

For  I  give  a  new  and,  it  is  believed,  the  true  account 
of  the  rise  of  the  town  of  Sligo  ;  as  also  of  some  of  its 
chief  buildings,  the  origin  of  which  has  remained  up  to 
the  present  unknown  :  for  instance,  the  Church  of  St. 
John,  which  is  always  referred,  but  erroneously,  to  pre- 
Reformation  times ;  the  stone  fort,  which  stood  on  the 
site  of  the  new  Town  Hall,  without  anyone  being  able 
to  tell  how  or  when  it  got  there  ;  and  the  so-called 
"  castles,"  which  figure  prominently  in  the  Depositions  of 
1641,  but  which  no  one  has  attempted  to  trace  further 
back.  If  the  reader  think  it  strange  that  these  matters, 
which  do  not  seem  to  be  very  recondite,  should  have 
lain  so  long  in  the  dark,  he  will  be  still  more  surprised 
to  find  that  the  device  on  the  arms  of  the  town,  which 
everybody  in  Sligo  might  be  expected  to  understand,  has 
been  hitherto  a  mystery,  and  is  now  for  the  first  time 
explained  aright. 

In  reference  to  the  rural  districts  of  the  county,  I 
claim  to  have  been  equally  fortunate  in  identifying 
historical  places,  which  had  eluded  all  previous  efforts  to 
identify  them  ;  such  as,  to  name  here  only  a  few,  Bun 
Lainne,  misplaced  by  all  our  writers  "  off  the  coast"  of 
Carbury  ;  Rath  Ard  Creeve,  ticketed  by  our  antiquaries 
and  historians  as  "obsolete;"  Ath  Angaile,  of  which 
O'Donovan,  in  one  of  the  Ordnance  Survey  letters 
(Sept.  4th,  1836),  writes  to  Mr.  P.  O'Keefe :  "  Do  you 
find  a  place  in  the  barony  of  Corran  called  At  Angaile  ? 


PREFACE.  IX 


By  referring  to  the  annals  of  Corran  you  will  learn  that 
it  was  the  name  of  a  castle.  I  have  been  on  the  look 
out  for  it  these  five  years  without  success,  and  if  you  do 
not  succeed  in  discovering  it,  I  shall  give  it  up  as  lost ;" 
the  Dumecha  nepotum  Ailello  of  Tirechan's  Annotations 
in  the  Book  of  Armagh,  supposed  erroneously  by  com- 
mentators on  Colgan  and  the  Book  of  Armagh  to  be 
Shankhil],  near  Elphin  ;  Aenach  Tiroilella,  referred  to 
by  the  Four  Masters  under  1397,  and  mistaken  by 
O'Donovan  for  Heapstown  ;  Srali  an  ferain,  mentioned 
in  the  same  passage  of  the  Four  Masters  as  connected 
with  Aenach  Tiroilella ;  the  Grianan  of  Calry.  regarded 
formerly  as  the  most  beautiful  spot  in  the  province,  but 
confounded  recently  with  a  very  common-place  little  hill 
near  the  chapel  of  Calry  ;  Claragh,  the  locality  in  which 
the  Most  Keverend  Malachy  O'Queely  was  slain  by  the 
Parliamentarians  ;  the  graveyard  in  which  the  kings  and 
princes,  who  fell  in  the  sanguinary  battle  of  Ceis  Corran 
in  971,  were  laid  to  rest ;  the  Church  of  Bishop  Lugid, 
in  which  the  great  Saint  Kevin  of  Glendalough  was 
ordained,  and  which  the  Saint's  biographers,  as  well 
foreign  as  native,  have  all  failed  to  find  out ;  and  many 
other  places,  equally  unknown,  though  perhaps  equally 
interesting. 

And  what  most  people  will  consider  a  matter  of 
greater  importance  than  the  rectification  of  mistakes 
about  local  antiquities,  I  refute  certain  grave  errors, 
advanced  and  popularized  by  two  of  the  most  eminent 
Irish  archaeologists,  Venerable  Charles  O'Conor  and 
John  O'Donovan,  regarding  the  religious  state  of  Ireland 
in  the  remote  past,  as  I  show  that  the  reason  on  which 
the  former  founds  his  notions  respecting  Moon  worship 


PREFACE. 


in  the  country  is  an  idle  fancy,  and  that  the  facts, 
from  which  O'Donovan  tries  to  deduce  the  practice  of 
Druidical  worship  among  our  ancestors,  so  late  as  the 
sixth  century,  are  misunderstood  by  him,  though  if 
rightly  understood,  they  lend  themselves  to  no  such 
conclusion. 

As  to  the  new  view  of  the  Carrowmore  circles  and 
cromlechs,  and  the  suggested  solution  of  the  problem 
which  they  present,  and  at  which  O'Donovan,  Petrie, 
Lord  Dunraven,  Sir  James  Ferguson,  and  a  host  of 
others,  have  tried  the  hand,  the  explanation  now  offered, 
if  found  to  be  the  true  one,  of  which  there  need  be  little 
doubt,  must  have  an  important  bearing  on  megalithic 
remains  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  even  in  other 
countries  ;  for  if  it  be  once  admitted  that  the  rude  stone 
monuments  of  Carrowmore  date  from  the  sixth  century 
of  our  era,  antiquaries  will  have,  what  has  been  hitherto 
wanting,  a  term  of  comparison  by  which  to  j  udge  analo- 
gous erections  elsewhere. 

The  low  date  will  appear  to  many  an  insuperable 
objection  to  the  view  now  put  forward.  Two  thousand 
four  hundred  and  one  years  is  a  vast  deduction  from  the 
age  even  of  Irish  antiquities,  long-lived  as  they  are 
supposed  to  be.  Formidable,  however,  as  looks  the 
interval  between  A.M.  3330  and  A.D.  537,  there  is  no 
occasion  to  be  frightened  at  it,  as  it  is  probably  more 
imaginary  than  real.  Modern  archaeologists  are  fast 
abandoning  General  Vallancey  and  his  school  of  anti- 
quaries, with  their  antediluvian  Irish  history,  their  proofs 
of  Celtic  antiquities  drawn  from  the  Hindoo  Puranas, 
and  their  Indo-Scythian  monuments  of  Ireland,  such  as 
the  so-called  temple  of  Vishnu  at  Killeshandra  in  the 


PREFACE.  XI 


County  Cavan,  and  the  temple  of  another  pagan  deity 
in  Inismurray,  in  our  own  county,  this  latter  being, 
according  to  the  General,  exactly  similar  to  one  in  the 
island  of  Elephanta,  called  by  the  Gentoos,  Mahoody  ! 
All  this  is  now  laughed  at ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  a 
great  deal  of  what  still  passes  for  Irish  history  deserves 
no  better  fate,  being  just  as  unsubstantial  as  the  Inis- 
murray "Mahoody." 

Exaggeration  has  been  the  besetting  sin  of  our 
historians,  and  this  not  only  to  the  detriment  of  Irish 
history,  but  to  the  injury  of  the  people's  minds,  by  filling 
them  with  a  credulity  in  regard  to  historical  matters, 
which  has  been,  and  still  is,  in  some  cases,  ready  to 
swallow  all  kinds  of  impossibilities.  In  particular, 
everything  has  been  so  enormously  antedated  that,  to 
approximate  to  correct  times,  one  may  strike  off  from 
traditional  dates  thousands  of  years  with  as  little  com- 
punction as  the  bards  and  seanachies  felt  in  piling  them 
on.  Instead  of  the  science  and  arts  and  arms  which 
those  imaginative  writers  and  their  modern  follower, 
Sylvester  O'Halloran,  love  to  dilate  on  as  flourishing  in 
pre-Christian  times,  intelligent  students  of  our  national 
history  are  now  coming  to  admit,  with  Strabo,  Pomponius 
Mela,  Tacitus,  Julius  Solinus,  Camel  en,  Ware,  Sir  James 
Ferguson,  and  notably  Father  Innes  in  his  exhaustive 
"  Critical  Essay  on  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  the 
Northern  Parts  of  Britain  or  Scotland,"  that  Ireland 
in  those  times  was  utterly  unlettered  and  barbarous.  If 
the  opinions  of  the  learned  progress  for  some  time  further 
in  the  same  direction,  the  outcome  before  long  will 
probably  be,  to  bring  all  or  nearly  all  the  existing  anti- 
quities of  the  county  within  the  Christian  era. 


PREFACE. 


Fuller  treatment  would  confirm  the  conclusions  arrived 
at  regarding  the  Carrowmore  and  other  ancient  monu- 
ments, but  greater  detail  was  impracticable  in  a  book 
which  is  not  a  monograph  on  Sligo  antiquities,  or  on  any 
other  single  department  of  Sligo  history,  but  a  survey  of 
the  entire  field,  presented  in  a  connected  narrative — a 
narrative,  too,  which  aims,  within  its  limits,  at  complete- 
ness, and  which,  while  furnishing  special  information  for 
the  student,  contains  a  good  deal  to  interest  the  general 
reader. 

While  giving  antiquities  ample  room  and  verge  enough, 
they  were  not  allowed  to  encroach  overmuch  on  space, 
which  could  be  better  occupied  with  the  more  recent  and 
vital  facts  of  our  history.  These  facts,  too  little  known, 
though  full  of  interest,  are  given  at  considerable  length. 
Such  are,  in  regard  to  secular  history,  the  rise,  the  rule, 
and  the  decline  of  our  chief  Celtic  families — the 
O'Connors  Sligo,  the  O'Haras,  the  O'Garas,  the  Mac- 
Donoghs  of  Tirerrill  and  Corran,  and  the  ODowds  and 
S weeney s,  or  MacS weeneys,  of  Tireragh.  To  the  O'Connors 
Sligo  alone  are  devoted  more  than  a  hundred  pages,  by 
no  means  an  undue  proportion,  considering  the  pre- 
eminent place  they  occupied  in  the  county  from  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  ;  and  as  to  the  other  families  no  one  will 
grudge  the  space  assigned  them  on  finding  that  they 
produced  men,  some  of  whom,  as,  for  instance,  Brian 
MacDonogh  of  Collooney,  and  Counsellor  Terence  Mac- 
Donogh  of  Creevagh,  deserve  to  live  for  ever  in  the 
grateful  remembrance  of  their  countrymen. 

After  the  subjection  and  disappearance  of  the  Celtic 
chiefs,  their  lands  were  parcelled  out  to  Anglo-Irish, 


PREFACE.  xiii 


English,  Welsh,  and  Scotch  grantees — the  Taafes,  Cootes, 
Coopers,  Ormsbys,  Joneses,  Gores,  Parkes,  Straffords,  and 
Radcliffs  ;  of  all  of  whom,  memoirs,  more  or  less  detailed, 
are  given  ;  and  as  most  of  those  families  came  in  with 
Cromwell,  or  made  common  cause  with  Cromwell  on  his 
arrival,  the  occasion  naturally  arose  of  describing  the 
Cromwellian  settlement  as  it  took  form  in  the  county, 
and  of  noting  the  principles  and  doings  of  the  settlers 
and  their  descendants. 

In  regard  to  religious  history  :  an  account  is  given  of 
the  propagation  over  the  county  of  the  Christian  religion 
—first,  by  St.  Patrick,  St.  Columba,  St.  Finian  of 
Clonard,  and  other  saints ;  next,  by  the  primitive 
religious  houses ;  and,  later,  by  the  larger,  and  more 
regular  monasteries,  notably  those  of  Boyle  and  the 
islands  of  Loch  Ce.  In  this  connexion  an  effort  is 
made  to  ascertain  the  means  of  support  possessed  by 
monasteries  and  churches  ;  and,  coming  down  to  more 
modern  times,  some  light  is  shed  on  the  State  religion 
in  the  seventeenth  century  by  examining  the  character 
and  qualifications  for  office  of  those  who  served  its 
ministry  in  the  county. 

As  to  social  history  :  while  the  reader  will  be  able  to 
gather  for  himself,  as  he  goes  along,  fair  notions  of  the 
life  led  in  the  county  at  different  periods,  he  will  be 
helped  more  directly  to  correct  ideas  on  the  subject  in 
the  last  chapter,  which  is  specially  designed  to  illustrate 
social  conditions,  and  which,  with  this  object,  is  arranged 
under  the  headings,  Eeligion,  Education,  Dwellings, 
Tillage,  Morals,  The  Bucks,  Duelling,  Local  Worthies  or 
Men  of  Mark,  Sligo  Newspapers,  Eoads,  Music  and 


xiv  PREFACE. 


Dancing,  Holy  Wells,  Wakes,  Popular  Sports,  The 
Seanachie,  Contrasts,  and  Ketrospect. 

The  account  that  is  given  of  local  antiquities  follows 
the  historical  rather  than  the  antiquarian  method.  The 
antiquary  proceeds  by  examining  the  old  world  object  in 
itself,  studying  its  characteristics,  comparing  it  with 
other  objects  of  a  similar  kind,  and  thus,  with  the  aid  of 
comparison  and  induction,  trying  to  determine  its  char- 
acter and  the  purpose  it  was  intended  to  serve.  Such 
inquiries,  however,  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  trustworthy 
conclusion,  must  be  exhaustive,  and  involve  too  dry  and 
complicated  a  process  for  a  general  history  like  the 
present,  being  suited  only  for  a  special  treatise.  The 
historian,  on  the  other  hand,  instead  of  considering  the 
piece  of  antiquity  in  itself,  and  trying  to  make  it  tell  its 
own  story,  relies  rather  on  external  evidence,  and 
examines  records  to  see  whether  they  can  cast  any  light 
on  the  object  in  question.  It  is  in  this  way  the  Cairo w- 
more  circles  and  cromlechs  are  here  treated.  Thinking 
that  an  effort  to  gather  from  the  dimensions  in  detail  of 
each  and  all  these  structures,  the  personal  circumstances 
of  their  builders  was  about  as  bootless  as  one  to  find  out 
from  the  shape  and  sizes  of  a  collection  of  hats,  the 
history  of  the  hatters,  I  have  troubled  myself  com- 
paratively little  with  mere  measurements,  but,  turning 
away  from  the  objects  themselves,  have  sought  their 
history  rather  in  the  annals  and  other  old  writings  of  the 
country. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness  in  the  narrative,  the  baronies 
are  taken  one  after  the  other,  instead  of  being  carried  on 
abreast;  Carbury,  as  containing  the  county  town,  coming 
first,  and  receiving  fuller  treatment  than  the  rest.  As 


PREFACE.  XV 


the  districts,  which  came  in  the  course  of  time,  and 
under  English  law,  to  be  incorporated  in  the  county  as 
baronies,  were  long  unconnected  and  had  separate 
histories,  they  could  not,  with  any  regard  to  perspicuity, 
be  handled  simultaneously  as  one  whole ;  for  the 
constant  passing  and  repassing  from  one  barony  to 
another,  which  would  then  become  necessary  in  order  to 
maintain  some  degree  of  chronological  sequence  in  the 
relation  of  events,  must  inevitably  beget  confusion.  Such 
a  process  would  only  bring  together  a  number  of  hetero- 
geneous facts  without  affinity  or  connexion  of  subject,  or 
other  principle  of  unity — the  operation  resembling  not  a 
little  that  of  making  concrete,  where  measures  of  the 
different  materials  intended  for  the  compound  are  tossed 
one  over  the  other  into  the  same  heap,  with  the  result 
that  the  original  ingredients  soon  cease  to  be  either 
separable  or  discernible.  It  might  seem  invidious  to 
refer  to  an  instance,  for  which,  perhaps,  one  should  not 
have  far  to  go,  of  this  confused  and  confusing  manner  of 
composing  local  history  ;  but  an  example  of  the  method 
attempted  in  these  pages  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Charles 
Smith's  well  known  and  highly  prized  county  histories, 
and  more  especially  in  that  of  Kerry,  on  which  Macaulay 
bestows  this  extraordinary  praise : — "  I  do  not  know  that 
I  have  ever  met  with  a  better  book  of  the  kind  and 
of  the  size." 

The  materials  of  this  book  are  drawn  for  the  most 
part  from  manuscripts,  very  little  in  it  being  taken  from 
printed  books,  and  nothing  at  all  without  independent 
inquiry.  In  treating  of  Sligo,  and,  indeed,  of  many 
other  Irish  localities,  a  writer  finds  his  situation  very 
different  from  what  it  would  be,  if  he  were  dealing  with 


xvi  PREFACE. 


places  in  England  or  Scotland  or  the  principal  countries 
of  the  Continent.  In  the  latter  cases  he  would  generally 
have  local  annals,  official  records,  family  papers,  memoires 
pour  servir,  and  other  such  documents,  to  draw  on  for 
the  facts  of  secular  history ;  and,  for  those  of  ecclesiastical 
history,  diocesan  archives,  registers  of  religious  houses, 
chartularies,  synodical  acts,  reports  of  episcopal  visita- 
tions, and  a  hundred  other  like  aids  ;  but  as  to  Sligo,  if 
we  name  the  meagre  records  of  the  Corporation,  the 
Clerk  of  the  Crown's  books,  and  a  few  pages  regarding 
the  banishment  of  the  Dominicans  in  1698,  written  by 
Father  Pat  M'Donogh,  the  Prior  of  Holy  Cross  at  that 
disastrous  period,  we  exhaust  the  local  manuscript 
sources  of  Sligo  history. 

The  destruction  by  fire  in  1416  of  the  O'Curneen 
manuscripts  of  Church  Island,  Loughgill,  occupied,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  with  the  annals  of  Sligo  and  Leitrim  ; 
the  disappearance,  in  some  way  not  explained,  of  the 
records  of  the  Connaught  Presidency,  which  must  have 
contained  much  of  the  official  history  of  Sligo  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  ;  and  the  burnino- 
some  sixty  or  seventy  years  back,  by  a  servant,  of  a  mass 
of  valuable  documents  belonging  to  Holy  Cross  Convent, 
Sligo,  which  the  stupid  man  took  to  be  so  much  waste 
paper,  are  a  loss  to  the  history  of  the  town  and  county 
which  it  would  be  hard  to  exaggerate.  Among  the 
Convent  papers  was,  most  probably,  the  Eegister,  which 
Archdall,in  his  "Monasticon,"  article,  "Cloonymeeghan," 
tells  us  existed  in  Sligo  in  his  day.  In  the  absence  of 
these  local  helps  the  inquirer  into  Sligo  history  must 
betake  himself  to  the  British  Museum,  the  Public  Kecord 
Office,  the  Koyal  Irish  Academy,  Trinity  College,  and 


PREFACE.  XV11 


similar  repositories  ;  and,  not  finding  in  such  places  any 
connected,  narratives  of  Sligo  transactions,  he  has  to  wade 
through  oceans  of  irrelevant  matter  to  fish  up  here  and 
there  the  facts  that  bear  upon  his  subject.  All  this  costs 
much  time  and  labour ;  but  of  course  it  is  only  on  that 
condition  anything  of  value  or  interest  can  be  put 
together. 

I  have  derived  hardly  any  benefit  from  local  tradi- 
tions. Indeed,  the  opinions  of  the  present  inhabitants  of 
Sligo  regarding  the  antiquities  or  remote  events  of  the 
neighbourhood  are  worth  nothing.  Whatever  may  be 
said  of  popular  ideas  on  such  a  subject,  as  they  exist  in 
other  parts  of  Ireland,  where  there  has  been  no  general 
disturbance  of  the  Celtic  population,  they  are  untrust- 
worthy in  and  round  Sligo,  owing  to  repeated  removals 
of  the  native  inhabitants  and  the  substitution  of  English 
and  Scotch  in  their  stead — these  changes  destroying  the 
continuity  of  local  opinions. 

In  proof  of  this  untrustworthiness,  let  me  refer  to  two 
or  three  of  the  most  popular  and  most  firmly  believed 
traditions  connected  with  the  town: — One  is,  that  the  old 
building  which  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  Town  Hall 
was  an  erection  of  the  O'Connors,  and  that  it  got  the  name 
of  "Lady  O'Connor's  Chair,"  by  which  it  was  popularly 
known,  from  a  Lady  O'Connor,  who  used  to  seat  herself 
upon  it  when  she  wished  to  have  a  good  view  of  the 
harbour ;  another  is,  that  the  tower,  which  figures  in  the 
arms  of  the  town,  represents  the  round  tower  of  Drum- 
cliff,  and  signifies  that  Drumcliff  preceded  Sligo  as  the 
chief  town  of  Lower  Connaught ;  and  a  third  may  be 
stated  in  the  words  of  the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  as  they 
are  found  in  his  "Journal"  under  date  of  *•*•  May,  1778  ; 
VOL.  i.  6 


xviii  PREFACE. 


« I  now  received  an  intelligible  account  of  the  famous 

massacre  at  Sligo.  A  little  before  the  Kevolution,  one 
Mr.  Morris,  a  popish  gentleman,  invited  all  the  chief 
Protestants  to  an  entertainment,  at  the  close  of  which, 
on  a  signal  given,  the  men  he  had  prepared  fell  upon 
them,  and  left  not  one  of  them  alive.  As  soon  as  King 
William  prevailed  he  quitted  Sligo.  But  returning 
thither  about  twenty  years  after,  supposing  no  one  then 
knew  him,  he  was  discovered  and  used  according  to  his 
deserts." 

Such  are  the  most  accredited  beliefs  of  Sligo  people 
and  others  regarding  the  past ;  and  one  may  get  a  good 
idea  of  the  value  to  be  set  on  local  views  when  one 
learns  that  these  accounts,  positive  and  circumstantial 
though  they  be,  are  one  and  all  mere  myths,  without  a 
particle  of  fact  to  rest  on.  Where  a  man  of  John 
Wesley's  ability,  and  experience,  and  honesty,  is  led  into 
error,  it  behoves  others  to  be  on  their  guard. 

No  county  in  Ireland  has  better  claims  to  careful  and 
painstaking  treatment  at  the  hand  of  writers  than  Sligo, 
for,  in  the  whole  island,  there  is  no  district  that  contains 
in  a  greater  degree  the  elements  which  give  interest  to 
a  locality — scenery,  antiquities,  and  association  with 
important  events.  It  would  be  easy,  if  need  were,  to 
bring  forward  a  long  catena  of  first-class  authorities  in 
proof  of  this  statement ;  and,  as  it  is,  it  may  be  useful  to 
quote  a  few  of  them,  if  only  to  show  tourists  and  other 
strangers  the  exceptional  interest  of  all  kinds  possessed 
by  the  county  : — 

"Altogether,"  writes  Dr.  Petrie  in  a  letter  dated 
Eathcarrick,  August  16th,  1837,  "this  district— 
I  might  say  county — is  equally  interesting  to  the 


PREFACE;  XIX 


geologist,  the  antiquary,  and  the  lover  of  the 
picturesque."  "  County  Sligo,"  says  the  eminent  artist 
and  antiquary,  Mr.  Wakeman,  in  an  address  to  the 
Historical  and  Archaeological  Association  of  Ireland,  "  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  localities  in  the  British  Isles, 
containing,  as  it  does,  a  complete  and  unbroken  series  of 
monuments  of  all  kinds — military,  ecclesiastical,  and 
domestic — from  the  earliest  period  known  to  British 
history  down  to  the  sixteenth  century."  "  The  town  of 
Sligo,"  writes  Fraser  in  his  admirable  "  Hand-Book  for 
Ireland,"  "  is  rather  romantically  situated.  Perhaps  no 
town  in  the  kingdom  enjoys  a  more  diversified  or  more 
picturesque  vicinage."  "The  environs  of  Sligo,"  says 
the  Gazetteer  of  Ireland,  "  possess  great  diversity  of 
character,  most  of  the  elements  of  first-rate  landscape, 
several  styles  of  scenic  power  and  beauty,  and  a  large 
aggregate  amount  of  loveliness,  brilliance,  and  magnifi- 
cence." "  County  Sligo,"  observes  Seaton  F.  Milligan,  in 
a  Lecture  read  before  the  Belfast  Natural  History  and 
Philosophical  Society,  in  the  Museum,  Belfast,  on  the 
1st  February,  1887,  "  is  classic  Irish  soil.  Its  ancient 
history,  if  recorded  by  another  Walter  Scott,  would  lend 
a  charm  and  an.  interest  to  it,  equal  to  any  in  Europe. 
It  affords  a  field  of  study  to  the  botanist,  the  painter, 
and  the  antiquarian." 

Not  to  carry  those  references  too  far,  I  will  cite  only 
one  more: — John  O'Donovan  came  to  Sligo  in  1836  to 
investigate  and  describe  its  antiquities  for  the  Ordnance 
Survey  Department,  but  finding  preparations,  which 
should  have  been  made  by  others,  incomplete,  he  begged 
Sir  Thomas  Larcom,  the  head  of  the  department,  to 
excuse  him  from  going  on  at  the  time  with  the  work, 


xx  PKEFACE. 


pleading  the  need  of  delay  in  these  remarkable  words : 
"  I  think  it  a  pity  to  spoil  so  amazingly  interesting  a 
county  by  working  in  the  dark." 

What,  quite  as  much  as  these  statements,  proves  the 
exceptional  natural  advantages  of  the  county  is  the  fact, 
that  the  highest  English  officials  have  often  tried  to  acquire 
for  themselves  or  their  families  as  much  of  it  as  they 
could.  Sir  William  Fitzwilliam  procured  for  his  brother, 
Brian  Fitzwilliam,  from  Elizabeth,  a  grant  of  the  Abbey 
of  Ballysadare  and  all  its  possessions ;  Sir  Eichard 
Bingham  plied  English  statesmen  with  repeated  applica- 
tions for  the  rich  mensal  lands  of  Bally  mote  Castle  ;  Sir 
Charles  Coote  managed,  under  the  Acts  of  Settlement 
and  Explanation,  to  put  his  brother  Richard,  afterwards 
Lord  Collooney,  in  possession  of  vast  stretches  of  the 
county,  which  have  since  passed  by  purchase  to  the 
Coopers  of  Markrea  ;  and  Lord  Strafford,  Charles  the 
First's  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  Sir  George  Rad- 
cliffe,  Stafford's  relative  and  colleague  in  office,  contrived, 
in  some  way  that  history  has  not  sufficiently  explained, 
to  secure  for  their  sons  the  great  O'Connor  Sligo  estate, 
comprising  the  whole  barony  of  Carbury,  with  large 
tracts  and  chiefries  in  each  of  the  other  baronies. 

One  will  search  in  vain  in  any  other  part  of  Ireland 
for  a  district  that  can  boast  of  such  an  array  of  wit- 
nesses to  its  merits,  each  witness,  too,  an  expert  in  the 
matter  on  which  he  testifies.  If  some  counties  can  com- 
pare with  Sligo  in  particular  points  ;  if,  for  example, 
Wicklow  and  Antrim  can  rival  it  in  picturesqueness  ; 
Kerry  and  Donegal — though  this  is  hardly  the  case — in 
monuments  of  primitive  times  ;  the  counties  on  the  south 
and  south-east  coasts,  in  stirring  events,  mediaeval  and 


PREFACE.  XXI 


modern  ;  not  one  of  them  all,  strong  as  the  assertion 
may  seem,  can  compare  with  it  in  the  combination  of 
these  and  the  other  attributes  which  impart  to  a  region 
the  interest  which  enlarges  the  mind  and  stirs  the 
heart. 

A  Sligo  man  should  be  encouraged  to  investigate  and 
study  the  past  of  the  country  by  the  great  example  of 
those  county  men  who  have  preceded  him  in  the 
pursuit.  It  is  hardly  going  too  far  to  say,  that  no 
county  in  Ireland  has  rendered  such  service  as  Sligo  in 
this  respect ;  for  if  you  put  away  what  was  done  by  the 
MacFirbises  of  Tireragh  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
seventeenth  century ;  by  Tomultagh  MacDonogh,  Solo- 
mon O'Droma,  and  Manus  O'Duigenan  in  compiling  the 
Book  of  Bally  mote  ;  and  by  Ferral  O'Gara,  to  whom 
Brother  Michael  O'Clery  gives  all  the  credit  of  the 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  you  dry  up,  by  the  fact, 
the  principal  sources  of  ancient  Irish  history. 

The  invasion  and  usurpation  of  the  Cromwellians,  in 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  put  a  stop  to 
these  studies  in  the  County  Sligo,  so  that  nothing  was 
done  in  them  by  any  one  from  that  period  down  to  1836, 
when  members  of  the  Ordnance  Survey  staff  wrote  the 
Sligo  Letters  (letters  of  no  great  value  in  themselves), 
and  nothing  at  all,  by  a  native  of  the  county,  down  to 
1878,  when  the  writer  published  the  "History  of  Bally- 
sad  are  and  Kilvarnet,"  a  volume  which,  notwithstanding 
its  limited  scope  and  many  imperfections,  had  the  effect 
of  turning  people's  thoughts  to  our  local  history. 

In  accordance  with  the  usages  of  literary  courtesy, 
though  in  opposition  to  his  own  ungenerous  practice  of 
ignoring  other  people's  labours,  it  is  right  to  mention 


xxii  PREFACE. 


here  Major  (now  Colonel)  Wood-Martin's  "  History  of 
Sligo,"  as  a  local  contribution  to  the  history  of  the 
county  ;  but  having  performed  this  act  of  duty,  and 
while  acknowledging,  besides,  that  the  Colonel,  aided  by 
his  talented  collaborateur,  Mr.  Jones,  has  done  some  good 
work  for  the  neighbourhood  by  exploring,  measuring, 
and  mapping  the  rude  stone  monuments  of  Carrowmore 
and  other  places,  it  must  in  justice  be  added,  however 
reluctantly,  that  the  "History  of  Sligo"  altogether  fails  to 
justify  its  title.  It  is  the  strong  sense  of  this  fact  that 
has  led  to  the  present  effort.  I  waited  long  to  see  would 
some  more  competent  hand  take  up  the  subject,  but 
finding  none  moving,  I  felt  a  call,  in  the  absence  of 
others,  to  make  what  attempt  I  could  to  clear  away  some 
of  the  fog  in  which  the  History  in  question  has  left  our 
"amazingly  interesting  county. "  There  is  still  work 
enough  in  the  field  for  other  labourers ;  and  if  what  is 
now  written  should  be  superseded  by  something  more 
worthy  of  the  subject,  nobody  would  be  more  pleased 
than  the  writer  with  the  result.  It  is  a  case  in  which 
personal  considerations  should  count  for  little  with  a 
Sligo  man,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against  the  fair 
fame  of  his  county. 

There  may  be  people  who  will  not  like  to  find  so 
many  notes  in  the  volumes.  To  some  readers  a  page 
charged  largely  with  references,  whatever  trouble  it  may 
have  cost  the  writer,  serves  only  to  repel.  For  this 
reason  the  greater  part  of  the  quotations  would  have 
been  omitted  if  that  could  be  done  consistently  with  the 
requirements  of  the  case.  Being,  however,  the  first  to 
traverse  most  of  the  ground  gone  over,  and  differing 
much  as  to  the  remainder,  from  those  who  had  preceded 


PREFACE.  xxill 


me,  I  could  not  expect  to  have  my  witness  accepted  in 
such  circumstances  without  corroboration  from  other 
quarters  ;  and  as  many  of  the  proofs  adduced  are  drawn 
from  manuscripts  hitherto  unpublished,  and  still  in- 
accessible to  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  readers,  it 
became  necessary,  that  people  might  be  able  to  judge  for 
themselves,  to  be  precise  in  references,  and,  in  many 
cases,  to  set  under  the  eye  the  ipsissima  verba  of  the 
authorities.  This  may  mar  the  look  of  the  pages,  but  it 
must  add  in  value  much  more  than  it  takes  away  in 
appearance. 

Treating  of  a  county  in  which  sectarian  and  party 
feelings  have  run  perhaps  higher  than  in  any  other 
county  of  Ireland,  and  in  which  people  must  still  tread 
on  the  ignes  suppositos  cineri  doloso,  one  may  be 
allowed  a  reference  to  oneself,  which  in  other  circum- 
stances would  be  justly  condemned  as  egotistic  ;  and,  in 
this  connexion,  I  make  bold  to  say,  that  I  am  as  free,  in 
what  I  write,  from  sectarian,  party,  or  personal  bias,  as 
John  Locke's  new-born  infant,  with  the  mind  clear  as  a 
sheet  of  white  paper  from  impressions  of  any  kind.  If 
then  anything  here  recorded  bear  hard  on  individuals  or 
a  class,  it  is  from  no  ill  will  towards  the  one  or  the 
other,  but  solely  from  the  obligation,  which  a  writer  on 
historical  matters  lies  under,  of  telling  the  truth, 
irrespective  of  party  or  person,  of  creed  or  class.  With 
private  life  I  meddle  never ;  but  when  instances  of 
oppression  or  one-sidedness  show  themselves  publicly  in 
society,  I  would  not  be  prevented  from  noticing  and 
stigmatizing  them,  even  though  a  friend  should  come  in 
consequence  to  be  counted  the  oppressor  or  the  partizan. 
Society  must  prevail  over  the  individual,  and  truth  over 


XXIV 


PREFACE. 


friendship — "  Amicus  Plato,  amicus  Socrates,  sed  magis 
arnica  veritas" 

It  becomes  now  my  pleasing  duty,  in  concluding 
these  remarks,  to  make  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
to  Colonel  Cooper  for  obliging  me  with  the  use  of  his 
valuable  MSS.  relating  to  Sligo ;  and  to  my  clerical 
friends  through  the  county  for  the  information  kindly 
furnished  regarding  their  respective  parishes. 


CONTENTS,  VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE  DISTRICT  OF  SLIGO. 


Sligo  made  a  separate  county  .  ~1 
Previously  a  part  of  the  old  county 

Roscommon  ....  2 
Areas  comprised  in  the  county: 

Tirerrill 3 

Corran  and  Leyney  4 

Coolavin 5 

Tireragh 6 

Carbury 7 

The  Erne  the  northern  limit  of 

the  county  in  the  16th  century  8 
Count}'  irregular  in  outline ;  the 

Coast  line 9 

Mountain  system .  .  .  .10 

Geological  formation  of  the  ranges  1 1 
The  Benbulben  group  .  .  .12 

Minerals  13 


Pago 

Arigna  mining  companies  14 

Silver  and  lead  mines  .  15 

Surface  of  the  land       .  16 

Woods  and  trees  .         .  17 

Multiplication  of  birds  18 

Pheasants  and  eagles    .  19 

Rabbits  and  deer  .  20 

Lakes  and  rivers  .        .  21 

The  Moy,   and  the  Sligeach  or 

Sligo 22 

The  Uncion,  or  Arrow,  and  the 

Owenmore         .        .         .         .23 
Lineage  of  the  people   .        .        .24 
Invasions  and  immigrations          .    25 
Consanguinity  of  present  popula- 
tion   .  .    26 


CHAPTER  II. 
BARONY  OF  CARBURY. 


Migration  of  the  Carbrians  to  the 

district  of  Sligo  .  .  .27 
Chiefs  of  Carbury  ...  28 
Aongus  Bronbachall  and  Bishop 

Bronus 29 

Chiefs  of  Carbury—  con  tinned       .     30 
Belong  to  Carbury  Sligo,  and  not 


to  Carbury  Teffia,  as   O'Don- 

ovan  thinks  .  .  .  .31 
O'Donovan's  high-handedness  .  32 
Carbury  subject  to  the  Kings  of 

Connaught  .  .  .  .33 
Rivalry  of  the  O'Connors  and  the 

Cinel  Connell    .         .        .         .34 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  TOWN  OF  SLIGO. 


Beauty  of  the  environs  of  Sligo    .  35 

Mountain  scenery  ;  Benbulben    .  36 
The  stretch  from  Knocklane  to 

Dromahair         .        .         .        .37 
Carlyle  upon  the  scenery  of  Sligo  38 
Town  of  Sligo  comparatively  mo- 
dern    39 

Proofs  and  illustrations        .         .  40 
Allusion    to   the    river  Sligo   in 

Colgan's  Vita  Tripartita   .         .  41 


Battle  of  Sligo,  and  the  Carrow- 

more  cromlechs         .         .        .42 
Writer's  views  on  the  battle        .  43 
The  battle-field     ....  44 
Route  from  the   north  to  Con- 
naught       45 

Situation    of     "  Grinder,"  men- 
tioned in  the  poem  on  the  battle  46 
Fearsats  or  strand  passes      .         .  47 
Shallowness  of  Sligo  river    .         .  48 


XXVI 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
The  cromlechs  and  circles  of  Car- 

rowmore 49 

Dr.  Petrie's  and  Mr.  Roger  C. 

"Walker's  views  ...  50 
Two  different  accounts  of  Battle 

of  Sligo ;  Eoghan  Bel  .  .  51 
Knocknarea — meaning  of  name  .  52 
O'Donovan's  and  Ven.  Charles 

O'Connor's  opinions  .  .  .53 
Writer's  opinion  .  .  .  .54 
Confirmation  of  .  .  .  .55 
Everything  makes  for  writer's 

view 56 


Firbolg  and  Tuatha  de  Danaan 
theory  utterly  improbable  .  57 

Sir  James  Ferguson  on  the  Car- 
rowmore  Circles  .  .58 

Objections  to  writer's  views  an- 
swered   5& 

No  proof  of  alleged  cremation       .     60 

New  view  confidently  submitted 
to  criticism  .  .  .  .61 

Ptolemy's  episemos  polis  of  Nag- 
nata  .  ...  .  .  .62 

This  shadowy  city  unworthy  of 
serious  thought  .  .  .63 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  FITZGERALDS  AND  SLIGO. 


No  indication  of  a  town  in  Sligo 
before  the  12th  century  .  .  64 

Signs  of  population  show  them- 
selves in  the  13th  century  .  65 

River  Sligeach,  or  Sligo;  itsshell- 
iness 66 

Puerilities  on  the  subject     .        .67 

Maurice  Fitzgerald  the  true  found- 
er of  Sligo .  ...  .68 

He  builds  the  castle     .         .        .69 

O'Donnell  tries  to  take  the  castle, 
but  fails 70 

Battle  of  the  Rosses  ;  single  com- 
bat between  Fitzgerald  and 
O'Donnell 71 

Deaths  of  Fitzgerald  and  O'Don- 
nell ....  .72 


Sligo  in  the  conflict  between  the 
Fitzgeralds  and  De  Burgos  .  73 

Fitzgeralds  and  De  Burgos  recon- 
ciled   74 

Fitzgerald  and  Clarus  MacMailiii, 
Archdeacon  of  Elphin  .  .  75 

Foundation  of  the  abbey  or  con- 
vent   76 

Date  of  foundation  ;  the  Marquis 
of  Kildare's  mistake  .  .  77 

Advantages  enjoyed  by  the  con- 
vent   78 

Population  of  town  English  at 
this  time 79 

A  view  of  the  town  as  it  looked 
under  the  Fitzgeralds  .  .  80 

Sligo  then  a  garrison  rather  than 
an  ordinary  town  .  .  .81 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  O'CONNORS  AND  SLIGO. 


The  O'Connors  come  to  the  front  82 
Battle  of  Magh  Diughbha,or  Crich 

Carbury 83 

After  the  battle  the  O'Connors 

reside  in  Castletown .  .  84 

The  battle  of  Crich  Carbury  dis 

astrous  to  the  O'Connors  .  85 

Funeral  of  Donnell  O'Connor  86 

Wealth  of  the  O'Connors  .  87 

The  time  becomes  favourable  to 

*hem 88 

Divisions  in  the  O'Donnell  family  89 
High  and  commanding  qualities 

of  the  O'Connors       .  .90 


Hugh  O'Donnell's  wife  a  furious 

Amazon 91 

Cathal  O'Connor  single  handed 

against  all  Connaught  .  .  92 
Cathal's  sons  .  .  .  .93 
Cathal  Oge  O'Connor's  exploits  .  94 
Four  Masters  unfair  to  Cathal  Oge 

— note 95 

Family  feuds  of  the  O'Donnells  .  96 
Cathal  Oge  dies  in  Sligo  of  the 

Plague,  or  Black  Death  .  .  97 
Bridge  of  Ballysadare  built  by 

Cathal  Oge  .  .  .  .98 
Heroism  of  Donnell  O'Connor  .  991 


CONTEXTS. 


XXV11 


Page 

An  ugly  blot  on  his  memory  .  100 
An  able  and  valiant  chief  .  .101 
O'Donnell  burns  Sligo  .  .  .102 
The  town  had  greatly  improved 

under  the  O'Connors         .        .103 
Time  when  the  O'Connors  became 

masters  of  Sligo         .         .         .  104 
Cathal   Oge  moves  from  Castle- 
town  to  Sligo    ....  105 
Proofs  of  this        .        .        .        .106 
Brian  and  Owen  O'Connor  .        .  107 
Dissensions  in  the  O'Connor  fa- 
mily   108 

The  O'Donnells    thrive   on    the 

disunion  of  the  O'Connors        .  109 
Capture  of  Sligo  Castle  in  1370    .  110 
The  castle  the  occasion  of  conten- 
tion   Ill 

Castle  taken  .  .  .  .112 
O'Donnell  pursues  the  O'Connors 

to  Belladrehid  .        .        .        .113 
Teige  Oge  O'Connor's  new  style 

and  title 114 

Manus  O'Donnell  takes  the  castle  115 
The  English  play  again  the  lead- 
ing part  in  Sligo        .        .        .116 
Their  policy          .        .        .        .117 
Sir  Henry  Sydney  and  Donnell 

O'Connor           .         .        .        .118 
Sydney  takes  O'Connor  to  Eng- 
land           119 

Donnell    O'Connor    submits    to 

Elizabeth 120 

Royal  letter  in  his  favour  .  .121 
Sir  Donnell  evades  engagements  .  122 


Page 
Sir  Donnell  and  Sir  Nicholas 

Malby 123 

Sir  Donnell  a  match  for  the  Queen 

and  her  Councillors  .  .  .124 
Had  nothing  heroic  about  him  .  125 
Career  of  his  brother  Owen  .  126 
Owen  O'Connor  and  Bishop 

O'Hart 127 

Sir  DonnelPs  morality  .  .  128 
Status  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo 

family  .  .  .  .  .  129 
Perrott's  Compositions  with  Sligo 

chiefs 130 

Sir  Donogh  O'Connor  .  .  .  131 
Sir  Richard  Bingham's  efforts 

against 132 

Commission  to  inquire  concerning 

Sir  Donogh  O'Connor's  claims  133 
Celebration  of  marriages  in  those 

days 134 

Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell  and  Sir 

Donogh 135 

Rory  O'Donnell  and  Sir  Donogh  136 
Submission  of  Sir  Donogh  to 

Mount  joy  .  .  .  .137 

Lady  Desmond,  Sir  Donogh's  wife  138 
Lady  Desmond's  children  .  .139 
Her  son  at  Kilmallock  .  .  140 
Daniel  O'Connor  succeeds  Sir 

Donogh 141 

Sir  Charles  O'Connor  .  .  .142 
Sir  Charles's  brother,  Donogh 

O'Connor 143 

Teige  O'Connor  hanged  in  Boyle  144 
Lady  Desmond  brought  little  luck 

to  the  O'Connors       .        .         .  145 


CHAPTER  VI. 
SLIGO  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 


Seventeenth    century    the    most 
eventful  in  the  history  of  Sligo  146 

English  and  Scotch  displacing  the 
old  Irish 

Insurrection  of  1641 

Movements  in  Sligo 

Massacre  in  the  gaol    . 

Explanation  of  the  tragedy 

The  chiefs  had  no  part  in  it 

Savagery  of  Sir  Frederick  Hamil 
ton 153 


147 
148 
149 
150 
151 
152 


His  principles  .  .  .  154 

Irruption  into  Sligo  .  .  155 

Burning  of  Sligo  .  .  .  156 

Sir  Frederick  impervious  to  reli 

gious  feeling  .  .  .  157 

His  treatment  of  Protestants  158 

Sir  Charles  Coote  captures  Sligo  159 
Ormonde  blames  the  Confederates  160 
Sir  R.  Stewart  Governor  of  the 

town  .        .        •  1C1 


XXV111 


CONTENTS. 


Archbishop  of  Tuam  tries  to  re- 
cover Sligo  .  .  .  .162 

Is  defeated  and  slain    .        .        .163 

Lord  Taaffe  tries  to  recover  the 
body 164 

The  Archbishop  regarded  as  a 
martyr 165 

Extraordinary  career  of  Father 
Feenaghty  » 

Tries  to  cure  the  sick  with  Dr. 
Queely's  relics  .... 

Not  certain  that  he  possessed  the 
genuine  relics  .  .  .  .168 

The  place  of  Dr.  Queely's  death 
hitherto  unidentified  .  .169 

Most  probably  he  fell  in  Cleveragh  170 

•Owen  Roe  O'Neill  and  Sligo        .  171 


166 
167 


CHAPTER  VII. 
CONFEDERATE  EFFORTS  TO  RECOVER  SLIGO. 


Sligo  a  thorn  in  the  sides  of 
Royalists  and  Confederates ; 
recovered  by  Lord  Clanrick- 

arde 172 

Disaffection  and  divisions  among 

the  Parliamentarians        .        .173 
Four  independent   armies,    with 

different  views  .         .         .  174 

Sir  Charles  Coote  summons  Sir 
Garrett  Moore  to  surrender 

Sligo 175 

Sligo  surrenders  .  .  .  .176 
Sufferings  of  Catholics  .  .  178 
New  Englanders  invited  to  Sligo  179 
County  Sligo  granted  to  the 

Cromwellians     ....  180 
Different  classes  of  Cromwellians   181 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  CROMWELLIAN  SETTLEMENT  OF  SLIGO. 


A  Commission  to  "  sett  out"  the 

lands  of  Tireragh  and  Carbury  182 
The  Cromwellians  a  garrison  .  183 
Cantoned  through  the  county  .  184 
They  boycott  the  Irish  .  .  185 
Spirit  of  Cromwellians  .  .  186 
Disappearance  of  Cromwellian 

families 187 

They  erect  a  new  fort  in  Sligo  .  188 
People  in  the  dark  as  to  origin  of 

this  fort 189 

Sir  Albert  Conyngham's  report 

upon  it 190 

The  Cromwellians  keep  a  grip  of 

their  lands  .  .  .  .191 
Others  claim  their  possessions  .  192 
The  O'Connor  Sligo  estate  .  .193 
Granted  to  the  Earl  of  Strafford 

and  Thomas  Radcliff  .  .  194 
The  sons  of  the  grantees  .  .195 


196 
197 
198 
199 
200 


The  estate  divided 

Particulars  of  the  division    . 

Money  payments 

Schedules  annexed  to  the  deed 

Benjamin  Burton 

Documents  regarding  the  O'Con- 
nor Sligo  estate  .  .  .201 

Report  of  the  Solicitor- General  .  202 

Clauses  in  the  Acts  of  Settlement 
and  Explanation  .  .  .  203 

The  name  of  O'Connor  Sligo  drops 
out  of  view  ....  204 

Peter  O'Connor  and  nephews  des- 
cendants of  the  old  O'Connors 
Sligo 205 

Character  of  Mr.  O'Connor  .        .  206 

A  patriot  of  the  best  type     .         .  207 

Other  descendants  of  the  old 
O'Connor  stock 


208 


CHAPTER  IX. 

JACOBITES  AND  WILLIAMITES. 
Persecution  in  Sligo     .        .        .209 
Jeremy  Jones  at  the  bottom  of  it  210 
Duke  of  Ormonde  and   Jeremy 

Jones 211 

^Movements  of  the  Williamites  .  212 
Sarstield  falls  back  on  Sligo  .  213 
Circumstances  of  Sarsfield's  quit- 

ting  Sligo  ....  214 


Sarsfield  retakes  the  town  .  .  215 
St.  Sauveur  and  the  Stone  Fort  .  216 
Henry  Luttrell  in  Sligo  .  .217 
His  tragic  death  .  .  .  .218 
Sir  Teige  0' Regan  made  Governor 

of  Sligo 219 

Sir  Albert  Conyngham  slain  .  220 
Sir  Teague  and  Lord  Granard  .  221 


CONTENTS. 


XXIX 


CHAPTER  X. 
TREATMENT  OF  CATHOLICS. 


Page 
State  of  the  country  after  the 

surrender  of  Limerick  .  .  222 
Registration  of  the  Clergy  .  .  223 
Letters  between  Dublin  Castle 

and  the  magistrates  of  Sligo  .  224 
Courts  of  inquiry  about  non- 

juring  priests  ....  225 
Depositions  of  28th  Oct.  1712  .  226 
Depositions  of  4th  Nov.  1712  .  227 
Priests  harboured  in  Morgan 

M'Carrick's  house  .  .  .  228 
Depositions  of  Owen  Devanny, 

Matthew    Fahy,    and    Bryan 

Hart 229 

Depositions  of  Peter  Kelly  and 

Patrick  Devanny  .  .  .  230 
Depositions  of  Teige  M'Donnagh 

and  Bryan  M'Donnagh    .         .  231 


Page 
Depositions  of  William  Bourke, 

Doonamurray  ....  232 
Depositions  of  Cormack  M'Glone 

and  Paul  Cunigham,Drynaghan  233 
Depositions  of  William  Ward  and 

Hugh  Gallagher,  Farrinacarny  234 
Facts  to  be  gathered  from  these 

Depositions  ....  235 
Magistrates  apply  for  military  aid  236 
Letter  of  John  De  Butt,  Provost 

of  Sligo 237 

Brigadier-General  Owen  Wynne 

examines  witnesses  .  .  .  238 
Jeremy  Fury,  discoverer  under 

Anne's  Penal  Acts ;   Laurence 

Bettridge  .  .  .  .239 

Anecdote  of  the  Nugents  .  .  240 


CHAPTER  XI. 
THE  ABBEY. 


The  Abbey  burned  down  in  1414  241 
Local  aid  towards  its  restoration  242 
Apostolic  Letters  of  Pope  John 

XXIII 243 

Prior     M 'Donogh     and     Pierce 
OTimony,     chief   local    bene- 
factors      .   ^     .        .        .        .244 
The  Abbey  a  singularly  beautiful 

structure 245 

Gabriel  Beranger's  description  of 

it 246 

Two  sides  of  square  nearly  gone  .  247 
Cloisters  of  great  beauty  .  .  248 
Sketch  taken  in  1776  .  .  .249 
Ambulatory,  Pulpit,  and  Garth  .  250 
Original  portion  and  restored 

parts 251 

Convent  dedicated  to  Holy  Cross  252 
Curious  epitaph  ....  253 
Sir  Donogh  O'Connor's  Monument  254 
Resembles  the  Earl  of  Cork's  in 

St.  Patrick's,  Dublin         .         .  255 
Lady  Desmond  buried  with  Sir 

Donogh 256 

The  Abbey  cemetery,   the  chief 

one  of  the  county      .         .         .  257 
Distinguished    persons    interred 

therein 258 

Records  of  the  Abbey  very  meagre  259 


Irish    Provincials    belonging    to 

Abbey  ;  Thadeus  O'Devanny   .  260 
He  secures  a  convent  at  Lou  vain 

for  the  Irish  Dominicans  .  .  261 
Provincial  Daniel  O'Crean  .  .  262 
Another  Daniel  O'Crean,  Provin- 
cial ;  Sir  Charles  Coote  .  .  263 
Provincial  John  0' Hart  .  .  264 
Father  O'Hart  and  Father  Peter 

Walsh 265 

Father  O'Hart  and  popular  edu- 
cation         266 

Provincial  Ambrose  O'Connor      .  267 
Ambrose  O'Connor  classed  among 

Dominican  writers    .         .         .  268 
Dominicans  fly  from  the  Abbey 
during  the  scenes  of  the  Popish 

Plot 269 

Extreme  distress  of  the  Conven 

tuals          ....  270 

Obliged  to  sell  their  chalices  271 

A  dishonest  debtor       .         .  272 

Prior  pays  debts  with  the   pro 

ceeds  of  the  chalices          .  273 

Holy  Cross  bell    ...  274 

Priors  of  Holy  Cross     .         .  275 

Prior  Andrew  O'Crean          .  276 

Prior  O'Crean  a  special  favourite 
in  Sligo      .  .  277 


XXX 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

He  erects  a  market  cross  .  ,  278 
Is  buried  in  the  Abbey  .  .  279 
Fathers  Dominick  and  Felix 

O'Connor  .        .         .        -280 

Father  Felix,  Prior  of  the  Do- 
minican Convent  of  Louvain    .  281 
Dies  in  Sligo  gaol,  a  victim  of  the 

Shaftesbury  Plot       .         .        .282 
Priors      M'Donogh,       O'Connor 

(Michael)  and  Nellus        .        .  283 
Very  Rev.  Dr.  Goodman,  Provin- 
cial and  Prior    .        .        .        .284 
His  eloquence       ....  285 
Builds  the  fine  Church  of  Holy 
Cross  .        .        -286 


Page 
Father  Boylan  places  a  tablet 

over  his  grave  ....  287 
Conflict  of  claims  to  the  mortuary 

offerings  of  the  Abbey  .  .  288 
A  Board  of  Works  restoration  of 

Abbey  desirable  .  .  289 

Obstacles  in  the  way  imaginary  290 
Abbey,  the  only  historical  struc 

ture  now  in  Sligo  .  .  291 

Advantages  of  restoration  .  292 

The  New  Cemetery  .  .  293 

Its  monuments  .  .  .  294 

Epitaphs 295 

Father  Casey's- poetic  epitaphs  .  293 
Quaint  epitaph  in  Templeboy 

graveyard          .        .        .        .297 


CHAPTER  XII. 
THE  CHURCH  OF  ST.  JOHN. 


A  later  church  than  those  of 
Killaspugbrone  and  Killina- 
cowen  .  .  .  •  298 

The  style  gives  no  indication  of 
its  age 299 

Rectory  of  Sligo  between  the  Two 
Bridges 300 

St.  John's  Church  a  foundation  of 
Sir  Roger  Jones  .  .  .301 

Sir  Roger's  social  standing  .        .  302 

His  monument     ....  303 

Churches  in  the  rectory  before 
Sir  Roger's  .  .  .  .304 

Miler  Magrath  granted  the  Rec- 
tory Intes  Duos  Ponies  .  .  305 

A  tergiversator  like  Talleyrand   .  306 


King  James  on  Miler's  malprac- 
tices   307 

Other  State  Church  ministers       .  308 
Catholic  Church  without  freedom 

of  action 309 

Usurpers  of  Church  property       .  310 
Congenial  work  for  the  Usurpers   311 
Sligo  chiefs  made  Royal  Wards  .  312 
Except  Thadeus  O'Hara  all  re- 
main true  to  the  old  religion     .  313 
Succession  of  Protestant  incum- 
bents in  St.  John's   .        .        .  314 
Rev.  Eubule  Ormsby   .         .         .315 
Curates  of  St.  John's  .        .        .316 
Rev.    Messrs.     Armstrong    and 

Montgomery     .         .         .         .317 
Strandhill  Protestant  Church      .  318 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  BOROUGH  OF  SLIGO. 


Sligo  created  a  borough  in  1613  .  319 
Names  of  burgesses  .  .  .  320 
James  the  Second's  burgesses  .  321 
Device  of  Corporation  seal  .  .  322 
Sir  Francis  Leyster  .  .  .323 
Insignia  of  the  Corporation  .  324 
Alderman  Colleary  and  the 

Mayoral  chain  .  .  .  325 
The  Wynnes  and  the  Corporation  326 
Sligo  gentry  and  the  Council  .  327 
Duties  of  the  Council  .  .  328 

The  Council  and  elections   .        .  329 


The   town    of    Sligo   small   and 

shabby 330 

Thomas  Corkran  gives  an  impetus 

to  building  ....  331 
The  streets  and  the  scavenging 

staff 332 

Nuisances  in  the  streets  .  .  333 
Public  passes  to  the  river  .  .  334 
The  bridge  at  the  end  of  Thomas 

Street 335 

Regulation  of  the  market  .  .  336 
Catholics,  the  helots  of  Sligo  .  337 


CONTENTS. 


XXXI 


Page 

Orthodoxy  of  the  Council     .         .  338 
Mr.  Sexton  and  the  Freedom  of 

the  Borough      .         .        .         .339 
Meetings  of  the  Old  and  the  New- 
Council      340 

Market  people      .        .        .        .341 
Marketing  in  the  streets      .        .342 


Page 
.  343 
.  344 


The  goods  exhibited      . 

Convivialities  of  the  time     . 

Friendly  relations  of  Catholics  and 
Protestants  ....  345 

Change  of  relations       .        .        .346 

Dr.  Petrie's  opinion  of  Sligo  peo- 
ple   347 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  HARBOUR  OF  SLIGO. 


Sligo  Bay 348 

Hollinshed's  estimate  of  the 

port  .  .  -.  .  .  .349 
Intercourse  between  Sligo  and  the 

Continent 350 

The  quays  of  Sligo  .  .  .351 
Pier  of  Ballast  quay  .  .  .352 
Nature  deepening  the  bay  .  .  353 


Efficiency  of  Harbour  Commis- 
sioners .... 

Merchants  of  Sligo 

Merchandize 

Butter  merchants  and  market  in 
spector  .... 

Sligo  fisheries 

Salmon  fishery 

Enhanced  price  of  fish  . 


354 
355 
356 

357 
358 
359 
360 


CHAPTER  XV. 
STIRRING  OCCURRENCES. 


The  Volunteer  movement    . 
Meetings    and     Resolutions 

Volunteers 

Spirit  of  the  Volunteers 
Parliamentary  elections 
County  elections  . 
Wynne  and  Ormsby  election 
Incidents  of  the  contest 
King  and  Perceval  election  . 
Pasquin  on  the  subject 
Loss  of  life    .... 
Origin  of  the  Clearance  system 


.  361 


of 


362 
363 
364 
365 
366 
367 
368 
369 
370 
371 


Battle  of  Carrickuagat  or  Collooney  372 


Tactics  of  the  leaders  .         .        .373 
Bartholomew  Teeling  and  Colonel 


Vereker 
Heroism  of  Teeling 
Suffering  Loyalists 
Interesting  inquiry  at  Sligo 
Smuggling     . 
Invasion  of  Cholera 
Violence  of  the  disease 
Terrors  of  the  situation 
The  Doctors  and  the  Clergy 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Burke 
Cases  and  deaths  . 


374 
375 

376 
377 
378 
379 

380 
381 
382 
383 
384 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
STREETS  AND  HOUSES. 


Look  of  the  town  as  viewed  from 

the  Albert  Road        .         .         .385 
Nomenclature      of      the    streets 

modern 386 

Explanation  of  the  names  .  .  387 
Public  buildings  ;  the  Cathedral  388 
Court-houses  ....  389 
Magisterial  proceedings  .  .  390 
Manor  and  Coroner's  courts  .  391 
Barony  Constables  .  .  .  392 
Barny  McKeon  and  Tom  M .  393 


The  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  394 
Their  concord  and  brotherhood  395 
The  Town-hall  ...  396 

Free  library  and  reading  room  397 
Private  bankers — Mullen,  Black 

Ballantyne,  and  McCreery  398 

Thomas  McGowan,  an  interesting 

banker 399 

Sligo  National  Bank  shareholders  400 
The  Infirmary  ;  Dr.  McDowel  and 

staff 401 


XXX11 


CONTENTS. 


Page 
.  402 


The  Fever  hospital       . 
The  Famine  of  1822  and  the  hos- 
pital   403 

Statistics  of  fever  cases        .        .  404 

Lunatic  Asylum   . 

Dr.  Petit  and  staff 

Principles  of  management    . 

Private  houses 

Water  supply 

Miss  Colleary  turns  on  the  water 


405 
406 
407 
408 
409 
410 


Hotels  of  the  towu       .        . 

Handicrafts 412 

Emigration    .         .         .        .        .'  413 

Messrs.  Patrick  and  Peter  O'Con- 
nor   .        ...        .        .414 

Messrs.  M'Neill  and  Sons'  estab- 
lishment     415 

Messrs.    O'Connor    and    Culleii's 
saw  mills 415 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 
COOLERRA. 


Extent  of  the  district  ,  .  .417 
Its  soil  and  surface  .  .  .418 
As  seen  from  Rosses  Point  .  .419 

Knocknarea 420 

Misgan  Meave  .  .  .  .421 
Prospect  from  Knocknarea  .  .  422 

The  Glen 423 

The  Granges         ....  424 

Cairns  Hill 425 

Nature  of  the  Cairns    .        .        .426 
Writer's  view  on  .        .        .        .  427 
Ecclesiastical  divisions  of  Coolerra  428 
Dependence  of  the  Sligo  district 
on  Tireragh       .        .        .        .429 


A  relic  of  Killaspugbrone  church.  430 
Dr.Petrie  on  the  age  of  the  church  431 
Kilmacowen  church  ;  its  patrons  .  432 
The  Cistercians  of  Boyle  and  Kil- 
macowen     433 

Serious  error  of  O'Donovan  and 

his  copyists  ....  434 
Captain  John  Baxter  .  .  .  435 
Coolerra  and  the  Ormsbys  .  .  436 
Temple  Bree — recte,  Tempul  na 

brugh 437 

Parish  Priest  of  Kilmacowen  and 

Killaspugbrone  ....  438 
Curious  old  chapel  of  Kilmacowen  439 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
PARISH  OF  CALRY. 


The  name  of  Calry  .  .  .  440 
Mistake  of  O'Donovan  .  .  .441 
Beauty  of  the  district  and  of  the 

views  from  it    .        .        .         .  442 
Hazelwood  ....  443 

Hazelwood  house  and  demesne  .  444 
Fine  views  from  ....  445 

Lough  Gill 446 

Archaeological  and   ecclesiastical 

memorials 447 

Lake  sometimes  dangerous  .  .  448 
Variations  of  depth  .  .  .  449 
O'Connors,  Creans,  and  Wynnes 

successive  owners    .        .         .    450 
The  Wynne  family  as  landlords 

and  country  gentlemen  .  451 

Different  estimates  of   .  .  452 

Brave  act  of  present  representa- 
tive of  the  family      .  .  453 
The  Ormsbys        .        .  .  454 
Willowbrook  House     .                 •  455 


Burglary  at  Willowbrook  .  .  456 
Illicit  distillation  in  ...  457 
Mrs.  Ormsby  Gore  .  .  .  458 
A  cadet  of  the  Willowbrook  family  459 
Castledargan  Ormsbys .  .  .  460 
The  Parkes  of  Dunally  .  .461 
Sir  William  Parke  .  •  .  462 
Dunally  of  Coolerra  and  Dunally 

of  Calry 463 

The  Parkes  not  followers  of  Straf- 

ford  as  supposed  .  .  .  464 
The  Deerpark  ....  465 
Remarkable  cashel  .  .  .  466 
Druid's  Altar  ....  467 
A  singular  monument  .  .  .  468 
Opinions  as  to  its  nature  .  .  469 
Perhaps  the  sepulchre  of  Eoghan 

Bel 470 

Aenachs  or  Fairs  ....  471 
Church  theory  of  the  Druid's 

altar 472 


CONTENTS. 


XXXlll 


Page 

Writer    would    connect  it   with 
games  ;  the  district  famous  for 

games 4-73 

Age  of  the  structure      .        .        .  474 


Page 

The  Grianan  of  Calry  .         .         .  475 
Mr.  O'Connor  and   Major  Wood- 
Martin's  opinion        .         .         .  476 
Writer's  opinion    ....  477 
Description  of  Greenan  Hill          .  478 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
PARISH  OF  DRUMCLIFF. 


The  Rosses  .  .  .^  .  .479 
Rosses  Point  as  a  watering  place  .  480 
Interior  of  the  tract  .  .  .481 
Separation  of  the  Rosses  from 

Magherow          .         .         .         .482 
Saints  Patrick   and  Columba  in 
the  Rosses          .         .        .         .483 

Cattle  cures 484 

"  Striping"  of  the  Rosses  .  .  485 
The  place  improving  under  the 

Middletons  ....  486 
Drumcliffe— name  of  .  .  " .  487 
Glencar,  charms  of  ...  488 
The  Waterfall  and  Sruth-an-ail- 

an-ard 489 

Drumcliffe    river    and     Inis-na- 

lainne         .....  490 
Inis-na-lainne  identified         .         .  491 
Major     Wood-Martin's     History 
would   confound  it  with    Inis- 
murray      .....  492 
Writer's  view        .         .         .         .493 
Glendallan,  meaning  of         .         .  494 
Saints  of  Glencar  or  Glendallan  .  495 
Saint  Columba  founder  of  Drum- 
cliffe church      .        .        .        .496 
Importance  of  the  place  exagger- 
ated   497 


Proofs  connecting  Saint  Columba 

with  the  church  .  .  .  498 
Dr.  Lanigan's  opinion  improbable  499 
Annals  of  the  monastery  .  .  500 
Families  of  O'Beollain  and 

O'Coineoil  .  .  .  .501 
Drumcliff  particularly  flourishing 

in  the  13th  century  .  .  .502 
Remains  of  the  monastery  .  .  503 
Castletown,  a  most  interesting 

spot 504 

The  cradle  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo  505 
Origin  of  the  name  Castletown  .  506 
It  is  the  Caisleu  Conor  of  the 

Four  Masters,  1316  .         .        .507 
Its  populousness   ....  508 
Ravaged  by  Sir  Frederick  Hamil- 
ton     509 

Lands  of,  pass  to  the  Gores  and 

the  Parkes  .  .  .  .510 
Qualities  of  the  soil  .  .  .511 
People  comfortable  .  .  .  512 
Botany  of  Benbulben  .  .  .513 
Geology  of  .  .  .  .  .  514 
Fantastic  Boar  hunt  .  .  .  515 
Professor  Hull  on  the  formation  of 
Belbulben  .  516 


VOL.  1. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

STONE  CIRCLE  AND  CROMLECH  OF  CARROWMORE   .            .            .     Vol.  I.  49 

KNOCKNAREA           .......,,  54 

SLIGO  ABBEY,  WITH  SPECIMEN  OF  CLOISTER          .            .                    ,,  249 

ST.  JOHN'S  CHURCH  IN  1776            .            .            .           .                    „  298 

SIR  ROGER  JONES'S  MONUMENT      .           .            .            .                    ,,  303 

OLD  AND  NEW  SEALS  OF  CORPORATION      .            .            .                    ,,  319 

PLAN  OF  THE  DEERPARK  CASHEL    ......  466 

DRUIDS'  ALTAR  AND  TRILTTHONS    .  467 


MAPS. 

MAP  OF  THE  TOWN  OF  SLIGO  .  .  .  .  ,,     Front. 

,,    OF  THE  FEARSATS  OR  STRAND  PASSES  .  .  ,,  47 

,    OF  THE  CARROWMORE  CIRCLES  AND  CROMLECHS  .  49 


HISTORY   OF    SLIGO: 

TOWN  AND  COUNTY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  DISTRICT  OF  SLIGO. 

THE  district  of  Sligo  was  formed  into  a  separate  county  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  at  the  time  when  the  other  existing  counties 
of  Connaught  were  constituted.  About  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  if  not  somewhat  earlier,  the  province  was 
divided  into  two  counties — the  county  of  Connaught  and  the 
county  of  Roscommon* — the  former  lying  to  the  south,  and  the 
latter  to  the  north,  of  a  line  which  stretched  from  the  Shannon 
to  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  and  that  this  line  was  only  ill-defined 
would  appear  from  Harris's  Hibernicarf  where  we  find  the 
sheriff  of  Connaught  and  the  sheriff  of  Roscommon  maintaining, 
each  that  a  certain  specified  district  called  Athruim  O  Many, 
belonged  to  his  own  county.  The  county  of  Connaught 
comprised  the  present  counties  of  Clare,  Galway,  and  Mayo ; 
while  the  County  of  Roscommon  took  in  the  existing  counties 
of  Roscommon,  Sligo,  Leitrim,  and  Cavan,  as  well  as  the  part  of 
Donegal  that  lies  between  the  Drowes  and  the  Erne.  Ware 
shows  by  abundant  proofs,  taken  from  the  records  of  the 
country,  that  this  dual  arrangement  continued  in  force  down  to 


*  "  In  the  times  of  Edward  I.  and  II.  Conaught  did  not  contain  that  whole 
province,  as  we  now  account  it ;  but  there  was  then  the  county  of  Conaught, 
which  was  but  a  part  of  that  province,  and  the  county  of  Roscommon,  which 
is  now  accounted  a  part  of  the  province  of  Conaught." — Sergeant  Mayart's 
Answer,  etc.,  in  Harris's  Hibernica,  Part  I.,  p.  68. 

t  Part  II.,  pp.  70-71. 

VOL.  I.  A 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


the  year  1565  ;  and  there  is  other  evidence,  which  escaped  his 
notice,  that  it  lasted  still  longer ;  for  we  find  Christopher  Bodkin, 
the  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  signing,  as  Queen's  Commissioner  in 
Civil  Causes,  an  injunction  addressed  to  the  sheriff  of  the 
11  county  of  Connaught,"  on  the  2nd  of  October,  1567.* 

Cox  in  his  Hibernia  Anglicana  leans  to  the  belief  that  the 
second  division  of  Connaught  into  shire  land — into  the  shires 
of  Clare,  Roscommon,  Galway,  Sligo,  Mayo,  and  Leitrim — was 
effected  by  Thomas,  Earl  of  Sussex,  who  was  Lord  Lieutenant 
from  1559  to  1565  ;f  a  more  common  opinion,  held  too  by 
Sir  James  "Ware,J  is,  that  it  was  the  work  of  Sir  Henry  Sidney, 
who  entered  on  the  office  of  Lord  Deputy  in  1565;  while  others, 
including  0 'Flaherty  in  his  Ogygia,  ascribe  the  change  to 
Sir  John  Perrott,  who  became  Lord  Deputy  in  1584 — the  fact 
apparently  being,  that  Lord  Sussex  originated  the  project,  that 
Sir  Henry  Sydney  executed  it  substantially,  and  that  Sir  John 
Perrott  confirmed  and  completed  it  by  his  famous  Compositions 
with  the  Connanght  chieftains.§ 


*The  Episcopal  Succession  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  By  Fr. 
Maziere  Brady,  Vol.  II.,  p.  135. 

t  "  In  the  time  of  Lord  Lieutenant  Sussex  .  .  .  Connaught  was  divided 
into  six  counties — Clare,  Galway,  Sligo,  Mayo,  Leitrim,  and  Roscommon.  .  .  . 
And  yet  some  (not  without  probability)  attribute  this  to  Sir  Henry  Sydney." 
— Hibernia  Anglicana,  Part  I.,  p.  317. 

J  ' '  Anno  1 565,  Sir  Henry  Sydney  divided  Connaught  into  six  counties. " 
—Harris's  Ware,  Vol.  II.,  p.  34. 

§  "  It  was  not  until  late  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  that  the  province  of  Con- 
naught  was  brought  under  subjection  to  the  Crown  and  laws  of  England.  The 
proceedings  by  which  that  event  was  achieved  were  commenced  by  the  Lord 
Deputy,  Sir  Henry  Sydney,  in  A.D.  1575  ;  and  completed  by  a  succeeding 
Deputy,  Sir  John  Perrott,  in  A.D.  1585." — O'Flaherty's  West  Connaught.  By 
James  Hardiman,  p.  299. 

Mr.  Hardiman  supports  his  assertion  by  'a  letter  of  Sir  Henry  Sydney, 
addressed  to  the  Council  of  England,  informing  that  body  that  he  had 
"  devided  Connaught  (besides  the  East  Breanie  or  Oreilies  and  the  Annalye  or 
Offeralls  countries)  into  fower  counties ;  namelye,  Sligo,  which  was  a  part  of 
Nether  Connaught,  and  Maio,  which  was  another  part  of  the  same  ;  Galway, 
which  was  called  Upper  Connaught,  and  Rossecommon,  which  was  called  the 
Playnes  of  Connaught."— Ibid. 

In  the  Ogygia  OTlaherty  says  :  "  There  were  six  counties  constituted  in 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


Before  the  formation  of  the  county  Sligo,  the  areas,  now  com- 
prised in  it,  were  known  as  the  countries  or  territories  of 
Tirerrill,  Corran,  Leyney,  Coolavin,  Tireragh,  and  Carbury; 
names  which  now  designate  the  baronies  of  the  county.  It 
will  not  be  out  of  place  to  examine  here  for  a  moment  what 
land  these  districts  anciently  contained  as  territories,  and  what 
they  now  contain  as  baronies ;  and,  taking  them  in  the  order 
in  which  they  lie  in  the  preceding  sentence,  it  would  appear,  in 
the  first  place,  that  Tirerrill  has  undergone  little  change  in  the 
coarse  of  time  as  to  its  contents.  It  was  said  of  old  to  extend 
from  the  Yellow  River  of  St.  Patrick's  Mountain  to  Tir  Tuathail 
or  Kilronan — ab  amne  flavo  Montis  Sancti  Patricii  ad  fron- 
tem  de  Tir  Tuathail — and  these  are  the  present  limits  of  the 
barony ;  for  the  Yellow  Eiver  of  St.  Patrick's  Mountain,  though 
not  now  known  popularly  by  that  name,  can  be  no  other  than 
the  stream  which  falls  from  the  slopes  of  Slieve  Gamh,  and 
which,  at  its  junction  with  the  Owenmore,  near  Annaghmore, 
forms  the  western  limit  of  Tirerrill.  The  mountain  of  Slieve 
Gamh  was  called  St.  Patrick's  Mountain  after  St.  Patrick,  as 
he  laboured  much  on  it,  raised  churches  on  its  slopes,  and  left 
his  name  to  some  of  its  wells,  as,  for  instance,  those  of  Dro- 
mard  and  Tullaghan.  It  is  stated  in  an  inquisition  taken  at 
Sligo  on  the  25th  July,  1607,*  that  twenty  quarters  of  the 
barony  of  Tirerrill  were  incorporated  with  the  county  Leitrim 
at  the  time  of  Perrott's  Compositions,  but  with  this  exception 
Tirrerill,  rede  Tiroillill — the  land  of  Oilill — is  now  in  extent 
what  it  was  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
what,  most  probably,  it  was  before  that  time,  and  ever  since 
it  received  its  present  name  from  Oilill,  the  son  of  Eochy 
Moighmedhoin  and  Mongfmna. 

Connaught  by  Sir  John  Perrott,  when  Lord  Lieutenant,  viz. :  Clare,  Galway, 
Sligo,  Maio,  Roscommon,  and  Leitrim." — Hely's  Ogygia,  Vol.  I.,  p.  40. 

*  "  There  is  twenty  quarters  of  the  barony  of  Tyre-Irrell  in  the  possession  of 
the  countie  of  Leytrym,  since  the  making  of  the  Composition  which  the  jurors 
finde  by  office,  warrant,  and  other  good  proof es,  to  be  of  right  parcell  of  the 
said  county  of  Sligo." — Inquisition  of  25  July,  1607,  taken  before  Sir  Anthony 
St.  Leger,  Knight,  &c. 


HISTORY    OF  SLIGO. 


On  the  other  hand,  Corran  was  much  more  extensive,  as  a 
territory,  than  it  is,  as  a  barony;  for  "the  country  called 
Corann,"  says  O'Flaherty,*  "  formerly  comprehended  Galenga  in 
the  county  of  Mayo,  Lugny  and  Corann,  in  the  county  of 
Sligo ; "  and  Ware  observes  on  the  same  point :  "  Coranna,  a 
Territory,  anciently  comprehending  Galenga  (now  the  Barony 
of  Galen,  in  the  county  of  Mayo),  Lugnia  (now  the  Barony  of 
Leny),  in  the  county  of  Sligoe),  and  Coranna  (now  the  Barony 
of  Corrann),  in  the  same  county."-)-  The  contraction  of  the 
district  is  proved  too  by  the  old  annals  of  the  country;  for 
places  which  now  lie  far  outside  the  barony,  belonged  in 
ancient  times  to  the  territory,  as  Kilcoleman-Finn,  now  in 
Mayo,  but  of  old  in  Corran,  J  and  Cunghill,  now  in  Leyney,  but 
in  Corran  in  the  eleventh  century.  § 

Leyney  too  has  had  its  variations  of  extent.  At  first,  when 
Cormac  Galeng,  the  ancestor  of  the  O'Haras  and  C'Garas,  got 
possession  of  it,  in  the  third  century,  the  district  of  Corann  or 
Coranna  received  the  new  name  of  Leyney  or  Luighne,  in 
honour  of  Luigh,  the  son  of  this  Cormac,  and  continued  to 
retain  the  name,  as  an  alias  one,  for  several  centuries.  During 
this  period  places  which  certainly  lay  within  the  ancient  terri- 
tory of  Coranna,  as  already  defined,  were  said  to  he  in  Leyney. 
Under  the  year  1225  we  read  in  the  Four  Masters  that  "Hugh 
O'Conor  and  the  English  pursued  the  sons  of  Roderic  that 
night  to  Meelick,  and  for  three  nights  afterwards  continued 
plundering  Leyney  in  all  directions ;"  this  plainly  implying 
that  Meelick  and  the  neighbourhood  of  Meelick  formed  part  of 
Leyney  at  the  time.  And  under  the  year  1253  we  are  told  by 


*  O'Flaherty's  Ogygia— Hely's  translation— Vol.  II.,  p.  236. 

t  Harris's  Ware,  Vol.  II.,  p.  48. 

J  Derniot,  the  son  of  Roderic  O'Conor,  took  the  house  of  Hugh,  the  son  of 
Manus  O'Conor,  at  Kilcoleman-Finn,  in  Corran. — Four  Masters,  A.D.  1212. 

§  A  battle  was  fought  between  Rory  O'Conor,  King  of  Connaught,  and 
Hugh,  son  of  Art  O'Ruairc,  at  Conachaill,  in  Corann." — Four  Masters,  1087. 
On  this  entry  O'Donovan  remarks,  in  a  note  :  "  Now  Cunghill,  a  townland  in 
the  parish  of  Achonry,  barony  of  Leyney,  and  county  of  Sligo." 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


the  same  authority  that  "a  monastery  for  Dominicans  was 
founded  at  Ath-Leathan  (Ballylahan),  in  Leyney ; "  and  though 
John  O'Donovan,  in  a  note  to  this  entry,  ventures  to  affirm, 
that,  "  the  Four  Masters  are  wrong  in  placing  this  in  the 
territory  of  Leyney,  for  it  is  certainly  in  the  ancient  territory 
of  Gailenga,  O'Gara's  original  country,"  still  it  is  certain  that  it 
is  O'Donovan  himself  who  is  tripping,  and  not  the  Four  Mas- 
ters; for  not  only  in  the  Four  Masters,  but  in  all  our  old 
authorities,  the  diocese  of  Achonry,  which  included  then,  as  it 
does  now,  the  district  of  Galen,  is  styled  the  diocese  of  Leyney, 
and  the  bishops  of  Achonry,  the  bishops  of  Leyney* — nay, 
this  very  writer  admits  as  much  in  another  place;  for,  in  a 
note  in  the  Book  of  Rights,}  he  lays  it  down  that  the  territory 
of  Leyney  and  the  territory  of  Achonry  diocese  are  exactly 
identical. 

Coolavin  is  not  so  old  a  denomination  of  territory  as  Tirerrill, 
Corran,  or  Leyney,  and  therefore  the  region,  designated  by  it, 
has  not  been  so  liable  to  vary  in  extent.  The  ancient  name  of 
the  district  was  Greagraidhe ;  but  Coolavin  did  not,  and  does 
not,  include  as  much  land  as  Greagraidhe ;  for  a  considerable 
tract  in  the  north  of  the  present  county  Roscommon  belonged 
to  the  latter  district. J  In  other  respects  Coolavin  has  gained 

*  Four  Masters,  A.D.  1213,  1218,  1226,  1236,  &c.  And  Ware  says  :  "  In 
the  ancient  Annals  of  Ireland,  the  Prelates  of  this  See  for  the  most  part  are 
called  Bishops  of  Luigny  or  Leny." — Harris's  Ware,  Vol.  II.,  p.  58. 

t  O'Donovan  clearly  contradicts  himself  on  this  subject ;  for  while  he  writes 
in  one  place  (Battle  of  Magh  Rath,  p.  252):  "The  ancient  territory  of 
Luighne  is  co-extensive  with  the  present  barony  of  Leyney,  in  the  county  of 
Sligo,  in  which  the  name  is  still  preserved,"  he  states  in  another  :  "  The 
exact  limits  of  their  territory"  (the  Luigne)  "are  preserved  in  those  of  the 
diocese  of  Achadh  Chonaire  (Achonry),  in  the  counties  of  Sligo  and  Mayo." — 
Book  of  Rights,  p.  103.  According  to  this,  then,  the  exact  limits  of  the 
Luighne  territory  would  be,  at  once,  those  of  the  present  barony  of  Leyney, 
and  those  of  the  present  diocese  of  Achonry,  though  the  diocese  is  about  three 
times  the  extent  of  the  barony  !  Bonus  aliquando  dormilat ! 

%  Greagraidhe,  now  ridiculously  called  "  The  Gregories,"  a  district  in  the 
south  of  the  county  of  Sligo,  supposed  to  be  co-extensive  with  the  barony  of 
"  Coolavin  ;"  but  it  was  originally  much  more  extensive. — O'Donovan 's  note  to 
"Book  of  Rights, "p.  99. 


6  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


rather  than  lost,  for  it  now  includes  part  of  Kilcoleman,  which 
of  old  belonged  to  Corran. 

Tireragh  has  lost  much  of  its  ancient  extent.  Always  a  most 
important  portion  of  Hy  Fiachrach,  with  which,  however,  it 
must  not  be  confounded,  as  it  was  only  a  part  of  that  extensive 
region.*  Tireragh,  or  Hy  Fiachrach  of  the  Moy,  stretched  at 
one  time  from  the  Moy  to  the  Erne.  O'Donovan  makes  the 
Drumcliff  river  the  oldest  northern  limit  of  this  territory,  but  it 
is  clear  from  the  Chronicon  Scotorum  that  it  extended  at  one 
time  all  the  way  to  the  Erne,  as  this  river  is  there  set  down  as 
the  boundary  between  the  Fiachrach  and  Cinel  Conaill.t 
Later,  the  Codnach — "  the  river  which  discharges  itself  into  the 
bay  of  Sligo  at  Drumcliff  "t — became  the  extreme  limit  towards 
the  north  ;  and  this  river  is  set  down  in  the  Topographical 
poems  of  John  ODugan,§  and  Giolla  losa  Mor  McFirbis,||  as 
the  bound  of  the  district  in  this  direction.  Even  before  the 
time  of  Giolla  losa  Mor  McFirbis,  Tireragh  had  shrunk  up  to 
Ballysadare  river — "  the  beauteous  stream  of  salmons — "If  and 
on  reaching  that  river,  in  his  description  of  the  territory,  Giolla 
losa  himself,  notwithstanding  his  partiality  as  local  bard, 


*  Along  with  Tireragh,  Hy  Fiachrach  included  Tirawley,  the  district  of 
Ceara,  in  the  county  of  Mayo,  the  Hy  Fiachrach  Aidhne  (co-extensive  with  the 
diocese  of  Kilmacduagh)  the  Cineal  Aodha,  na  h-Echtghe  (in  the  south-west  of 
the  county  Galway)and  Killovyergh,  in  the  north  western  portion  of  the  barony 
of  Kiltartan,  in  Galway.  —Tribes  and  Customs  of  the  Hy-Fiachrach,  p.  3. 

t  Chronicon  Scotorum.  By  W.  M.  Hennessy,  page  7. — "  Samoir  between 
the  Fiachrach  and  Cinel  Conaill."  Samoir  was  an  old  name  of  the  river  now- 
called  the  Erne. 

t  O'Donovan's  note  in  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy'Fiachrach,  page  302. 
§  "  From  the  Codhnach  of  gentle  flood, 
The  mark  of  the  boundary 
To  the  boundary  of  the  Rodba,  to  be  mentioned. 
It  is  a  beauteous  perfect  territory. 

Of  the  illustrious  race  of  Fiachrach." — Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy 
Fiachrach,  page  279. 

H  "From  the  Rodba  of  prosperous  course 
I  have  bravely  pursued  my  career 
To  the  Codhnach  of  winding  current."— Ibid. 
1  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy  Fiachrach,  p.  275. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


admits  virtually  that  the  land  which  lay  beyond  the  "  stream  " 
does  not  belong  to  Hy  Fiachrach,  but  belongs  to  Carbury  : 

"  Let  us  pass  into  Carbury  of  the  battles, 
Let  us  leave  the  soil  of  Hy  Fiachrach."* 

By  the  pressure  of  the  O'Rorkes  and  others  the  northern  limit 
was  forced  still  further  back,  on  to  the  Beltra  Strand ;  for  the 
Four  Masters  tell  us  of  Brian  Ballagh  O'Rourke,  who  died  in 
1562,  that  "his  supporters,  fosterers,  adherents,  and  tributaries 
extended  ....  from  Granard  in  Teffia  to  the  Strand  of  Eothuile 
the  Artificer,  in  Tireragh  of  the  Moy."f  And  the  Strand  con- 
tinued to  be  the  bound  of  the  territory,  till  baronies  were 
formed,  as  it  is,  and  has  been  all  through,  the  bound  of  Tireragh 
as  a  barony. 

The  district  of  Carbury  was  of  different  dimensions  at  differ- 
ent times.  In  remote  times  it  comprised  Lough  Melvin,  for  the 
Four  Masters  state  that  when  the  grave  of  Melghe  Molbhthach 
was  digging,  "  Lough  Melghe  burst  forth  over  the  land  in  Car- 
bury  ;"J  and  we  learn  from  the  Tripartite  Life  of  St.  Patrick 
that  Crich-Conaill,  belonged  at  that  time  to  Cairbre  as  far  as 
Rath-Cunga,§  a  tract  of  about  five  miles  in  width.  In 
O'Dugan's  Topographical  Poem  there  is  mention  of  "  the  two 
Carburys,"  which  shows  the  district  was  then  divided ;  and 
though  the  writer  supplies  no  means  of  knowing  the  extent  or 
position  of  each  division,  we  may  with  great  probability  conclude 
that  "  the  two  Carburys"  of  the  poem  coincide,  or  nearly  coincide, 
with  the  Upper  and  Lower  Carbury  of  recent  times;  the  former 
stretching  from  Belladrehid  to  Kilsellagh  river,  and  the  latter 
from  the  Kilsellagh  to  the  Duff  river. 

The  plain  of  the  Moy  or  Magh  Ene,  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
river  Erne,  was  commonly  regarded  in  the  past,  as  part  of 


*  Ibid. 

t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  A.D.  15G2. 
I  Ibid.,  A.M.  4694. 

§  Tripartite  Life  of  St.  Patrick.    Translated  from  the  original  Irish.    By 
W.  M.  Hennessy,  iu  M.  F.  Cusack's  Life  of  St.  Patrick,  page  434. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Carbury,  though  there  is  respectable  authority  for  considering 
it  to  have  been  a  portion  of  Tirconnell  or  Donegal.  As  the 
northern  limit  of  Carbury  and  the  northern  limit  of  Connaught 
coincided,  there  is  the  same  diversity  of  opinion  in  regard  to  it 
under  the  one  respect  and  the  other,  Connaught  writers  gene- 
rally making  the  Erne  the  limit,  and  Ulster  writers,  the  Drowes.* 
In  forming  the  county  Sligo,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
Erne  was  made  the  northern  boundary,  though,  later,  the  Drowes 
was  substituted  as  such  :  apparently  with  the  object  of  allowing 
the  counties  of  Fermanagh  and  Leitrim  direct  access  to  the 
seaboard,  as  may  be  inferred  from  a  petition  on  the  subject, 
which  certain  Undertakers,  or  would-be  Undertakers,  addressed 
during  the  Plantation  proceedings  of  Ulster  to  the  Commissioners 
of  Plantation,  and  which  opens  as  follows  : — "  Eight  Honourable 
— The  40  Undertakers  whose  names  are  hereunder  written,  are 
petitioners  for  a  grant  of  that  small  part  of  the  county  Sligo, 
now  in  the  King's  hands,  which  lies  between  the  end  of  Lough 
Erne  and  the  sea ;  as  they  intend  to  have  a  market  town  on  the 
south  side  thereof  at  Ballike,  and  from  thence,  three  miles  nearer 
the  sea,  to  erect  a  strong  corporation.  This  part  of  Sligo 
contains  about  three  miles  being  a  piece  of  ground  very  con- 
venient adjoining  the  sea,  for  the  necessary  use  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  that  corporation  for  bringing -in  or  transporting  their 
commodities."f  Whether  it  was  this  representation  or  some 
other  consideration,  that  influenced  the  Government,  the 
northern  limit  of  the  county  Sligo,  as  well  as  of  the  barony  of 

*  For  the  Erne  we  have  the  Chronicon  Scotorum  (page  7).  The  Annals  of 
Loch  Ce  agrees  with  the  Chronicon  Scotorum,  and  makes  the  northern  and 
southern  limits  of  Connaught  to  be,  respectively,  the  Erne  and  Slieve  Eichte. — 
Hennessy's  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  A.D.  1316. 

For  the  Drowes  on  the  other  hand  we  have  Colgan  who  writes,  "  Magh  Enc 
cst  campus  Tirconnalliae  ad  australem  ripam  numinis  Ernei  inter  ipsum  et 
Drobhais  fluvium  protensus." — Trias  Thaumaturga,  page  180. 

The  Four  Masters  are  at  one  time  for  the  Drowes  and  at  another  for  the 
Erne,  according,  probably,'to  the  source  from  which  they  draw  their  information. 
—See  years  1137  and  1597. 

t  Calendar  of  State  Papers  of  James  I.  Edited  by  Rev.  C.  W.  Russell,  D.D., 
and  John  P.  Prendergast,  Esq.,  vol.  2,  page  315. 


HISTORY    OF   SLTGO.  9 


Carbury,  was  moved,  soon  after  the  receipt  of  the  Undertakers' 
petition,  from  the  Erne  to  the  Drowes,  and  later  to  the  Duff 
river,  where  it  remains.  The  county  then  is  bounded  on  the 
south-west  by  the  county  Mayo ;  on  the  north-west  by  the 
Atlantic  ocean ;  on  the  north  by  the  Atlantic  and  the  river 
Duff ;  on  the  east  by  the  county  Leitrim  ;  on  the  south-east  by 
the  county  Roscommon ;  and  on  the  south  by  the  counties 
Roscommon  and  Mayo.  As  to  latitude  and  longitude,  the  bay 
of  Sligo  lies  54°20'  north  latitude,  and  8°40'  west  longitude ; 
Sligo  town  54°10'  north  latitude,  and  8°25'  west  longitude;  and 
the  centre  of  the  county  54°10'  north  latitude,  and  8°35'  west 
longitude. 

Though  one  would  be  inclined  to  infer  from  an  inquisition 
taken  at  Sligo,  in  1607,  before  Sir  Anthony  St.  Leger,  declaring 
the  length  of  the  county,  from  the  Curlews  to  the  river  Erne, 
to  be  40  miles,  and  the  breadth  from  Ballifernan  to  Bellaghy,  to 
be  40  miles,  that  the  county  is  a  square,  the  inference  would  be 
quite  erroneous,  for  there  is  hardly  a  county  in  Ireland  more 
irregular  in  outline.  To  reduce  it  to  some  symmetry  it  would 
be  necessary  to  cut  off,  on  the  south,  most  of  the  barony  of 
Coolavin,  which  runs  in  between  Roscommon  and  Mayo ;  on  the 
north,  as  much  of  the  barony  of  Carbury  as  lies  below  a  line 
running  from  Coney  Island  through  Drumcliff,  to  the  county 
Leitrim;  on  the  east,  the  parishes  of  Shancoe  and  Kilmactrany 
in  the  barony  of  Tirerrill ;  and,  on  the  west,  the  parishes  of 
Easky,  Kilglass,  Castleconor,  and  Kilmoremoy,  in  the  barony  of 
Tireragh.  Even  with  this  adjustment  there  would  still  remain 
much  zig-zag  in  the  outline,  not  only  along  the  sea  coast,  where 
the  indentations  are  frequent  and,  sometimes,  notable,  but  also 
inland,  at  some  of  the  points  where  Sligo  touches  the  adjoining 
counties. 

The  coast  line,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Moy  to  that  of  the 
Duff,  is  sinuous  and  varied  both  in  contour  and  elevation.  The 
sea  line  is  diversified  not  only  by  the  three  deep  estuaries  of 
Ballysadare,  Sligo,  and  Drumcliff,  but  also  by  the  mouths  of 
several  little  rivers — the  Fined,  Ballybeg,  Easky,  Dunneill, 


10  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Skreen,  Portavad,  Kilsellagh,  Carney — by  the  headlands  of 
Lenadoon,  Aughriss,  Raghley,  Knocklane,  and  Mullaghmore; 
and  by  the  minor  points  of  Cloghagh,  Leckacurry,  Rathlee, 
Kinnasharnagh,  Carrownrusb,  Carrickadda,  Pollnagat,  Carrow- 
nabinna,  Lackaverna,  Donagh,  Lackmeeltaun,  Rinnadoolish, 
Streedagh,  and  Rosskeeragh  ;  while,  as  to  elevation,  the  coast 
rises  abruptly  in  some  places — at  Aughriss,  Knocklane 
and  Mullaghmore  ;  shelves  off  from  the  land,  along  a  great  part 
of  the  Tireragh  shore,  and,  in  Carbury,  from  Aghaphreghan  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Drowes  ;  sinks  into  flat  strands  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Moy,  Dunmoran,  Beltra,  Coolerra,  Bomore,  Trawna- 
vannoge,  Trawativa,  and  Bunduif  Strand  ;  and  slopes  down 
gently  and  gradually  to  the  water's  edge  in  parts  of  Tireragh,  at 
Beltra  and  Streamstown  in  Leyney,  near  Sligo  on  both  the  right 
and  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  and  at  some  other  points  in 
Carbury.  This  great  variety  in  the  sea  line  and  the  surface  line 
of  the  coast,  unlike  the  sameness,  often  met  with  elsewhere,  is 
most  pleasing  to  the  eye,  which,  wherever  it  turns,  finds  new 
combinations  of  the  picturesque. 

Mountain  scenery  is  so  prevalent  in  the  landscape,  that  almost 
wherever  you  happen  to  be,  if  you  look  about  you,  you  will  find 
yourself  surrounded,  or  apparently  surrounded,  by  mountains. 
The  mountain  system  of  the  county  forms  to  the  eye,  allowing 
for  a  few  breaks,  the  figure  of  8,  or  two  connected  circles,  one 
superimposed  on  the  other.  The  upper  part  of  the  figure  is 
traced  by  the  Ox  Range,  Slieve  da  En,  Braulieve,  the  Curlews, 
Bockagh,  and  Mullaghnoe  in  the  county  Mayo,  and  contains 
the  baronies  of  Corran,  Leyney,  Tirerrill,  and  the  half  barony  of 
Coolavin  ;  while  the  lower  portion  of  the  figure  has  its  counter- 
part in  Slieve  da  En  and  the  Ox  Range,  as  they  are  seen  from 
the  north,  Knocknarea,  Benbulben  and  the  other  hills  of  the 
Benbulben  group  together  with  the  Donegal  mountains,  which, 
though  belonging  to  another  county,  blend  so  naturally  with 
those  of  Sligo,  as  to  appear  a  continuation  of  them.  This  second 
circle  encloses  the  baronies  of  Tireragh  and  Carbury.  These 
elevations  are  of  various  altitudes — the  highest  point  of  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  11 


Ox  Range,  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  being  1778  feet;  of  Slieve 
da  En,  967  feet;  of  Braulieve,  1396  ;  of  the  Curlews,  1062  ;  of 
Cashelgal  and  Coologeaboy,  1430;  of  Knocknarea,  1078;  of 
Benbulben,  1721  ;  while  the  ridge  of  Slieve  Lugha,  including 
Bockagh  (745  feet),  and  Mullaghnahoe  (775  feet),  is  scarce  bold 
enough  to  be  dignified  with  the  name  of  mountain. 

The  geological  formation  of  these  ranges  varies.  Slieve  da  En 
and  the  Ox  Range  are  primitive,  metamorphic,  and  volcanic 
rocks,  composed  of  quartz,  mica  slate,  gneiss,  crystalline  green- 
stone, but  in  different  proportions  and  combinations,  at  different 
parts  of  the  range  ;  a  narrow  strip  of  old  red  sandstone  runs 
along  the  sides  of  the  range  ;  while  beyond  this  strip  lies  the 
floetz  limestone,  which  permeates  most  of  the  county,  running 
through  the  whole  seaboard,  from  the  Moy  to  the  Duff,  as  well 
as  through  the  baronies  of  Tirerrill,  Leyney,  and  the  greater  part 
of  Corran — the  stone,  along  the  shore,  in  the  parishes  of  Skreen 
and  Ballysadare,  being  of  prime  quality,  both  as  to  the  thickness 
of  the  strata  and  the  texture  of  the  grain,  so  as  to  supply 
material  fit  either  for  the  blocks  of  a  breakwater,  or  for  articles 
of  vertu ;  portions  of  it  being  susceptible  of  the  finest  carving 
and  the  richest  polish.  The  Braulieve  mountain,  which  forms 
the  chief  part  of  the  Connaught  Coal-field,  contains  the  usual 
strata  of  the  Coal  Measures ;  millstone  grit,  limestone,  and 
coal,  etc.  Mr.  Kinaban*  gives  the  following  as  the  contents  of  a 

GENERAL  SECTION  OF  THE  CONNAUGHT  COAL-FIELD. 

over  400  feet, 
about  1  foot. 
50  feet. 
3  feet. 
50  feet. 
3  feet. 
96  feet. 

603 
LOWER  MEASURES  600 

1,203  feet." 

The  Curlews  and,  more  especially,  the  Sligo  side  of  them,  are 

*  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  Ireland.  By  G.  Henry  Kinahan,  M.R.I. A. >  etc. 
p.  121. 


MIDDLE 
MEASURES  1 

Upper  Rocks          ...         ...          o\ 
,  III.  Kelve           a 
J          Intermediate  Beds 
1    II.  Coal             

1 

Intermediate  Beds 
|      I.  Kelve           

4 

'           Lower  Beds 

12  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


supposed  to  consist  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone,  which  also  passes 
down  from  the  east  end  of  them,  for  some  distance,  along  the 
western  shore  of  Loughs  Ce  and  Arrow ;  but  Mr.  Kinahan  in  his 
Geology  of  Ireland*  holds  the  formation  is  not  true  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  but  limestone  of  the  Burren  type. 

The  same  authority  characterises  Benbulben  and  the  adjoining 
hills  as  Limestone  Hills,  and  fixes  the  contents  of  a  section  as 
follows: — 

"  4.  Sandstones,  the  lowest  beds  of  the  coal  measures. 
3.  Pale  grey  limestone,  with  magnesian  limestone  bands. 
2.  Thin  bedded  black  shaly  limestone,  with  magnesian 

limestone  bands. 
1.  Olive,  grey,  and  whitish  sandstones,  with  black  slate 

partings."f 

Though  Knocknarea  lies  to  the  south  of  the  Sligo  river, 
while  the  Benbulben  hills  are  to  the  north,  its  geological  formation 
seems  to  be  the  same,  so  that  it  may  be  set  down  as  Burren 
limestone,  or,  as  this  formation  is  commonly  called  in  England, 
mountain  limestone. 

It  will  come  with  surprise  on  many  to  be  told  that  the 
Benbulben  group  of  hills  lay  for  ages  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean,  and  that,  vast  as  these  ranges  are,  they  are  composed  in 
large  measure,  like  the  Coral  Islands  of  the  South  Sea,  of  fossil 
shells  and  shell-fish.  And  yet  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  on 
the  subject;  for  various  specimens  of  the  stone,  when  examined 
under  the  microscope  by  competent  judges,  exhibit  unmistakably 
this  composition.  Professor  Hull,  an  authority  second  to  none 
on  the  geology  of  Ireland,  bears  witness  after  careful  personal 
examination  and  study,  that  "  the  formation,  notwithstanding 
its  great  thickness,  must  be  considered  as  the  work  of  marine 
animals,  which  lived  in  the  waters  of  the  clear  ocean  of  the 
Carboniferous  period,  generally  far  removed  from  land,  and  un- 
contaminated  by  muddy  or  sandy  sediment."J 

*  Ibid.,  p.  82. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  83. 
J  Hull's  Physical  Geology  of  Ireland,  p.  33. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  13" 


It  was  long  supposed  that  coal  might  be  found  in  several 
parts  of  the  Ox  and  Slieve  da  En  mountains.  This  opinion, 
becoming  generally  known,  brought  scientific  and  practical  coa_ 
miners  to  the  place,  who  after  making  careful  and  extensive 
searches,  and  finding  no  trace  or  indication  of  coal,  concluded 
there  was  no  ground  for  the  popular  belief. 

Iron  stone  exists  in  the  mountains  of  Kilmacley ;  in  a  tract 
lying  between  Dromahair  and  Ballintogher ;  as  well  as  on 
both  banks  of  the  Arigna  river,  and  in  other  places.  The  Kil- 
macley mine  was  worked  by  a  Mr.  Rutledge  "  till  all  the  woods 
of  the  country  had  been  burned  out  and  carried  to  Foxford, 
where  he  had  iron  works."*  * 

In  1816,  the  well-known  Jack  Taaffe,  who  had  recently 
purchased  a  large  stretch  of  the  Ox  mountains,  discovered  what 
he  took  to  be  a  valuable  slate  quarry  on  the  property.  The 
Keverend  Mr.  Neligan  was  then  drawing  up  his  Statistical 
Account  of  Kilmactigue,  and  sharing  Mr.  Taaffe's  views  of  the 
quarry,  reports  it  as  capable  of  yielding  slates  six  feet  long,  of 
any  thickness  required,  of  a  close  hard  grain  and  blue  colour, 
and  so  easily  worked  that  "  two  intelligent  hands  could  produce 
one  thousand  pounds'  worth  of  slates  in  a  nionth."f  This 
promising  find,  which  was  to  enrich  its  owner,  and  diffuse 
benefits  of  all  kinds  throughout  the  neighbourhood,  ended,  like 
so  many  others  of  the  time  and  kind,  in  disappointment  and 
loss. 

An  incomparably  greater  failure  and  loss  resulted  from  the 
Arigna  Collieries  and  Iron  Works,  about  which,  though  belong- 
ing less  to  the  county  Sligo  than  to  the  neighbouring  counties 
of  Roscommon  and  Leitrim,  a  word  or  two  may  be  said.  The 
Iron  Works  were  started  in  1788  by  three  brothers  of  the  name 
of  O'Reilly,  who  soon  incurred  such  losses  that  they  had,  first, 
to  mortgage  and,  ultimately,  to  sell  the  property  to  the  Messrs. 
Latouche,  the  famous  bankers  of  Dublin,  who  had  advanced  to 
the  O'Reillys  large  sums  of  money.  One  of  the  Latouches, 

*  Doctor  McFarlan's  Statistical  Survey  of  County  Sligo,  p.  10. 
t  Statistical  Account  of  Ireland,  Vol.  II.,  p.  315. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


thinking  the  concern  a  promising  one,  purchased  from  the  bank 
the  interest  which  the  O'Reillys  had  parted  with,  and  set  to 
work  single-handed  with  great  energy  and  unstinted  outlay,  but 
with  the  result,  which  is  well  brought  out  in  the  following 
anecdote,  as  told  by  Isaac  Weld,  in  his  admirable  Survey  of  the 
County  Eoscomrnon  : — "  I  well  remember  taking  a  ride  with 
that  excellent  and  kind-hearted  man,  Mr.  Latouche,  at  a  vener- 
able period  of  his  life,  and  on  stopping  before  a  large  iron  gate, 
in  his  beautiful  park  of  Bellevue,  being  asked,  whether  I  had 
ever  before  seen  so  costly  a  piece  of  workmanship  ?  The  gate 
was  a  spacious  and  goodly  one,  but  there  was  nothing  extra- 
ordinary in  its  appearance.  '  I  see  you  are  hesitating,  sir,'  said 
the  good  old  gentleman;  'and  yet  I  can  venture  to  assert  that 
you  never  before  saw  a  gate  which  cost  the  owner  so  much.  That 
gate,  sir,  cost  me  £80,000,  for  it  is  the  only  thing  I  ever  got  out 
of  the  Arigna  Iron  Works,  in  return  for  all  my  money  expended 
there.'  "« 

It  was  in  1818,  Sir  Richard,  or  as  he  then  was,  Mr.  Richard 
Griffith's  report  on  the  Connaught  coal  district  was  published, 
and  as  the  paper  spoke  very  favourably  both  of  the  coal  and  iron 
of  the  district,  speculators  were  set  in  motion,  so  that  in  a  year  or 
two  three  different  companies,  the  ArignaCoal  and  Iron  Company, 
the  Irish  Mining  Company,  and  the  Hibernian  Mining  Company 
were  in  the  field.  The  Hibernian  Mining  Company  soon  retired, 
having  inferred  from  some  experiments,  which  they  prudently 
made,  that  they  could  not  work  with  any  prospect  of  remuner- 
ation ;  the  Irish  Mining  Company  continued  raising  and  selling 
coal  on  a  small  scale  for  several  years ;  while  the  Arigna  Coal 
and  Mining  Company,  after  a  series  of  fraudulent  proceedings, 
hardly  to  be  surpassed  in  the  unsavoury  history  of  joint-stock 
companies,  after  robbing  their  shareholders  and  demoralising 
the  neighbourhood,  collapsed  disgracefully,  pretending  to  sus- 
pend, but  in  reality,  closing  their  operations. 

There  is  little  prospect  of  these  coal  fields  being  worked  on 
any  large  scale  with  profit.  It  might  be  otherwise  if  Sir  Richard 

*  Weld's  Survey  of  County  Roscommon,  p.  38. 


.WU 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  15 


Griffith's  estimate,  that  the  principal  seam  is  three  feet 
inches  thick,  were  well  founded,  but  instead  of  that,  eighteen 
inches  or  thereabouts  would  seem  to  be  much  nearer  the  truth. 
The  expense  of  extracting  the  mineral  from  this  thin  seam  is  so 
great,  that  a  ton  of  the  large  coal  would  cost  perhaps  as  much 
at  the  pit's  mouth,  as  a  ton  of  Scotch  coal  at  the  quay  of  Sligo ; 
and  the  consequence  is,  that  the  produce  of  the  Arigna  Collieries 
is  rarely  seen  at  present  beyond  the  immediate  neighbourhood, 
except  in  the  shape  of  culm,  a  cart  of  which  may  find  its  way 
occasionally  to  a  lime-kiln  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
pits.  Meantime,  however,  the  mine  is  feebly  worked  to  supply 
the  demand  of  persons  who  live  near  it,  but  so  remote  from 
Sligo,  where  English  and  Scotch  coals  are  sold,  that  the  cartage 
would  equal  or  exceed  the  price  of  the  coal. 

There  is  a  silver  and  lead  mine  on  the  northern  slope  of  the 
Ox  Mountains,  in  the  parish  of  Ballysadare,  another  at  Abbey- 
town,  in  the  same  parish,  and  a  third  upon  the  very  Harbour- 
mouth  of  Sligo,  "  in  a  little  demy-island  commonly  called  Coney 
Island,"*  this  last  being  the  only  one  of  the  three  mentioned 
by  Boate,  in  his  Natural  History  of  Ireland,  as  if  the  others 
were  unknown  to  him. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  Coney  Island  mine  was  ever 
worked,  though  the  other  two  were,  in  the  last  century,  the 
scenes  of  extensive  operations,  judging  by  the  great  quantity  of 
debris  which  lies  scattered  upon  them.  In  his  Tour  in  Ireland, 
Arthur  Young  writes  of  the  Abbeytown  mine,  "Near  Ballysadare 
is  a  lead  mine,  but  not  worked  with  success,  though  very  rich," 
People  say  that  the  works  were  carried  on  as  long  as  there  was 
timber  in  the  neighbourhood  for  smelting,  and  that  they  were 
discontinued  only  when  this  fuel  failed." 

There  is  reason  however  to  think  that  the  poverty  of  the 
mine  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  its  abandonment.  A  few  years 
ago,on  Mr.  Middleton  purchasing  Abbey  town,he  sent  over  various 
specimens  of  the  ore  to  England  to  have  it  tested,  with  a  view 
to  working  the  concern  vigorously,  in  case  the  experiment 
*  Thorn's  Tracts  and  Treatises,  Vol.  I.,  p.  115. 


16  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


warranted  him,  and  on  the  trial  leaving  things  doubtful,  he  sank 
a  shaft  of  sixty  or  seventy  feet,  in  search  of  a  richer  vein  than 
any  that  showed  itself  near  the  surface,  but  failing  to  find  it, 
he  gave  up  the  undertaking :  a  pretty  satisfactory  proof,  when 
one  takes  into  account  his  great  intelligence  and  energy,  that  the 
mine  under  present  circumstances  is  too  poor  to  pay.  It  may 
still  be  hoped,  considering  the  large  tracts  of  the  county  in  which 
the  silver  and  lead  appear,  that  veins  will  be  one  day  found  rich 
enough  to  warrant  their  working. 

Minerals  of  other  kinds  are  known  to  exist  through  the 
county :  copper  in  the  Ox  Mountains,  manganese  in  the  Slieve 
da  En  range,  garnets  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lough  Esk,  and 
asbestos  on  the  confines  of  the  county  of  Leitrim. 

The  surface  of  the  county  has  quite  changed  in  appearance 
within  the  last  two  centuries.  The  whole  county  was  little  better 
than  a  wilderness  in  the  closing  years  of  the  17th  century.  What 
the  French  Officers  said  of  parts  of  Ulster  in  1689,  that  a  march 
through  it  was  like  "  travelling  through  the  deserts  of  Arabia," 
was  quite  true  of  the  county  Sligo,  which  had  suffered  more  than 
most  other  places  from  the  ravages  which  followed  the  insur- 
rection of  1641.  Since  that  time  everything  has  been  altered — 
Pestilential  swamps  have,  by  draining  and  cultivation,  become 
rich  tillage  land,  producing  luxuriant  root  and  cereal  crops ;  ex- 
tensive tracts  which  grew  nothing  but  heath  and  furze  are  now 
covered  with  the  sweetest  and  greenest  of  grasses ;  and  from  a 
county  which  struck  the  traveller,  so  late  as  the  first  years  of 
the  present  century,  as  particularly  destitute  of  trees  and  shrubs, 
Sligo  has  become  perhaps  the  best  timbered  county  in  Ireland.  If 
Wakefield  who,  in  his  Account  of  Ireland,  writes,  "On  the  llth 
of  September,  1809,  I  went  to  Nympbsfield  through  Sligo  and 
Ballisodare,  but  I  observed  no  trees  during  the  whole  course  of 
the  way,"  could  now  revisit  the  place,  there  is  probably  nothing, 
among  all  the  great  changes  which  have  occurred,  that  would 
strike  him  so  forcibly  as  the  profusion  of  timber  on  all  sides. 
Woods  are  given,  in  writings  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  then 
existing  here  and  there  on  the  skirts  of  the  Ox  Mountains,  and 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  17 

of  the  Slieve  da  En  range,  round  the  Curlews,  and  along  the 
northern  shore  of  Lough  Gara ;  but  much  of  it  is  spoken  of  as 
"  firewood ;"  and  it  is  certain  that  the  trees  which  grew  in  these 
places  were  small  in  number  and  size,  as  compared  with  those 
which  may  be  now  seen  in  Union  Wood,  and  Slish  Wood ;  the 
demesnes  of  Markrea,  Annaghmore,  Templehouse,  Holly  brook, 
Hazelwood,  and  Lissadell;  and  in  other  places,  where  the  gnarled 
oak,  the  spreading  beech,  and  the  stately  ash,  reach  their  fullest 
perfection. 

Trees  in  vast  numbers  have  been  cut  down  of  late  in  those 
places  and  removed.  For  about  twenty  years,  carts  have  been 
constantly  on  the  roads  of  the  county,  carrying  off  timber  from 
woods  and  demesnes  to  the  Bobbin  Mill  of  Messrs.  McNeill  in 
Sligo,  to  Mr.  Glynn's  Chemical  Works  at  Collooney,  to  Mr. 
Anderson's  Saw  Mill,  Sligo ;  to  Messrs.  Manly's  Saw  Mill  at 
Collooney,  and  to  other  places  ;  and  still  this  enormous  consump- 
tion has  not  diminished  the  supply  very  sensibly,  at  least  to  the 
eye  of  the  casual  observer.  Except  in  one  or  two  cases,  planting, 
to  supply  the  place  of  the  timber  removed,  is  not  practised  to 
the  extent  it  ought.  Colonel  Cooper  has  planted  large  tracts  on 
the  south  side  of  Slieve  da  En,  on  the  Ox  Mountain,  at  Derreens, 
the  Sessus  in  the  parish  of  Cloonacool,  and  the  neighbourhood 
of  Lough  Esk,  and  here  and  there  in  Union  Wood,  Ballygawley 
Wood,  and  the  demesne  of  Markrea ;  the  number  of  trees 
planted  in  these  places  within  the  last  twenty  years,  reaching  at 
least  a  million  and  a  half.  Mr.  O'Hara,  too,  has  planted  a  good 
deal  in  his  demesne  of  Annaghmore.* 

*  The  following  are  the  dimensions  of  some  of  the  largest  existing  trees  ia  the 
county  : — 

MAKKREE   DEMESNE. 

Girth  at  surface  of  Ground.  Girth  at  four  feet  high. 

Species.  feet.  feet. 

lAsh     .  25i 


2  Ash     .  .  .  21 

3  Ash     .  .  .  18 
1  Beech               .            .  23 


2  Beech  ...  22 

1  Elm     .  .  .  19r» 

VOL.   I.  B 


14 
12 
15^ 
14 


18  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


As  a  matter  of  course,  the  security  and  shelter  of  plantations 
have  led  to  the  multiplication  of  such  singing  birds  as  black- 
birds, thrushes,  linnets,  finches,  &c. ;  and  it  is  hard  to  tell  whether 
the  student  of  nature  is  more  struck  by  the  sights  or  by  the 
sounds  which  he  meets  with  in  his  rambles  through  the  groves 
of  the  county.  The  scenery  in  some  of  these  tracts  is  varied  and 
beautiful — hills  and  shady  dells,  crags  covered  with  coppice  wood 
or  enamelled  with  wild  flowers,  alternating  with  stretches  of  full 
grown  forest  trees. 

The  eagles  which  used,  a  couple  of  centuries  ago,  to  frequent 
the  peaks  of  Benbulben  and  the  Ox  Mountain  have  nearly  dis- 
appeared. Mr.  Sibery,  junior,  has  shot  three  of  them  in  his 
time ;  and  last  year  (1887),  another  was  seen,  which  must  be 
still  at  large.  Hawks  are  diminishing  greatly  in  numbers,  and 
abandoning  their  haunts,  though  some  of  them  still  retain 
possession  of  Carrig-na-shouk — the  hawk's  rock — near  Coolany ; 
and  if  man  or  boy  comes  near  the  rock,  they  are  sure  to  sally 
forth  from  their  eyrie  on  the  face  of  the  precipice,  and  to  keep 
whirling  round  high  up  in  the  air,  screaming  and  clattering  till 
the  intruder  has  taken  himself  away  out  of  their  sight,  and  left 
them  again  in  quiet  occupation  of  this  their  immemorial 
retreat. 

While  these  formidable  and  hardy  birds  are  dying  out, 
pheasants,  introduced  in  the  county  about  a  dozen  years  ago,  are 

TEMPLEHOUSE   DEMESNE. 

Girth  at  surface  of  ground.  Girth  at  four  feet  high. 

Species.  feet.  feet. 

Flowering  Ash  .  16  .  .  .  10 

Common  Ash    .  .  15  .9 

Copper  Coloured  Beech  10  .  .  .  8 

Cedar  of  Libanus  .13  .7 

CLOONEMAHON  DEMESNE. 

Ash       .  .  19^  in.        .  .  .  12-51  in. 

ANNAGHMORE  DEMESNE. 

Beech  .             .            .            18  ...  15 

Fir  .            .15  .            .            .  12 

Ash  14  ...  10 

Oak  ...            12  9 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  19 


multiplying  in  our  woods  and  demesnes.  When  Wakefield  wrote 
his  Account  of  Ireland  in  1812,  there  were  no  pheasants  in  the 
country  except  a  few  "  in  a  coop  at  the  seat  of  Lord  Bantry, 
and  some  in  Lord  Roden's  park,'county  Down,"  though,  at  present, 
owing  to  the  great  care  that  is  taken  of  them,  they  are  found, 
in  constantly  increasing  numbers,  in  all  the  parks  of  the  county 
Sligo,  where  their  exquisite  plumage  so  bright,  so  glossy,  so 
beautifully  blended  and  varied,  offers  the  most  charming  object 
conceivable  to  the  eye.  The  famous  Greek  philosopher,  Solon, 
is  said  to  have  been  so  struck  by  the  dazzling  beauty  of  this  bird, 
that  when  Croesus,  the  fabulously  rich  king  of  Lydia,  showed  him 
all  the  gorgeous  adornments  of  the  Lydian  throne  and  palace, 
and  asked  him  had  he  ever  conceived  anything  so  fine,  the 
philosopher  replied,  that  he  could  think  of  nothing  finer  except 
the  plumage  of  the  pheasant.  The  following  figures,  marking 
the  proceeds  of  a  day  or  two's  shooting  in  a  county  Sligo  demesne, 
of  an  average  size,  give  an  idea  of  the  proportion  of  pheasants  to 
other  species  of  game  in  the  county:  335  pheasants,  45  wood- 
cocks, and  53  hares. 

An  authentic  anecdote  or  two,  current  till  lately  about  Sligo, 
show  that  eagles  were  numerous  in  the  neighbourhood  in  the 
early  years  of  the  century.  First:  a  well-known  rope  manufac- 
turer, named  Billy  Black,  was  tricked  rather  cleverly  by  a  country 
woman  who  passed  on  him,  at  a  high  price,  an  old  plucked  eagle 
for  a  turkey.  It  is  told  that  Billy's  cook  found  the  cooking  of  the 
bird  rather  tough  work,  and  Billy  himself,  the  eating  of  it  still 
tougher.  Second  :  eagles  were  to  be  had  so  near  the  town  as 
Cairns  Hill,  and  one  of  them,  that  was  shot  there  on  a  moon- 
light night,  but  not  killed  outright,  though  blinded,  flew  into 
the  town  and  down  through  Market  Street,  putting  out  the 
candles  of  the  shops  by  the  flapping  of  its  wings,  to  the  conster- 
nation of  the  people,  who,  at  first,  regarded  the  occurrence  as  a 
supernatural  visitation. 

Rabbits  are  more  numerous  just  now  than  at  any  former  time, 
on  account  of  the  greatly  enhanced  price,  and  the  daily  increasing 
demand  that  is  for  them :  For  these  reasons,  they  are  better 


20  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


preserved  than  in  the  past — owners  of  land  finding  them,  in 
many  instances,  more  profitable  than  cattle  or  sheep.  In  some 
pasture  tracts,  on  which  cattle  are  taken  in,  to  be  depastured 
for  the  six  months  from  May  to  November  at  a  given  rent,  as 
much  profit  is  sometimes  made  by  sale  of  the  rabbits  trapped, 
as  by  the  rent  of  the  cattle.  Thus,  in  a  large  stretch  near  Knock- 
lane,  in  Carbury,  where  the  rent  of  the  grazing  cattle  brought  in 
£300,  the  sale  of  the  rabbits  is  said  to  have  realized  £330.  If 
the  demand  for  the  small  quadruped  continues  to  increase,  it  is 
not  unlikely,  that,  as  some  landlords  found  it  their  pecuniary 
interest  to  substitute  on  their  estates  cattle  for  human  beings,  so 
these,  or  other  landlords,  may  soon  come  to  count  it  more  profit- 
able to  have  rabbits  than  to  have  cattle  on  their  lands. 

The  leading  gentry  of  the  county  keep  deer — either  in  parks, 
walled  in  for  the  purpose,  as  in  the  case  of  Colonel  Cooper,  Mr. 
O'Hara,  and  Mr.  Wynne,  or  more  at  large  in  their  demesnes  as 
in  the  case  of  others.  Sir  John  Davis,  who  wrote  in  1613,  his 
celebrated  Discover  ie  of  the  True  Causes  why  Ireland  was  never 
entirely  subdued,  tells,  that  in  his  time,  there  was  "but  one  Parke 
stored  with  Deere  in  all  this  Kingdom e,  which  is  a  Parke  of  the 
Earl  of  Ormond's,  near  Kilkenny,"  but  since  that  day  deerparks 
have  become  sufficiently  common  in  Ireland — with  a  good  pro- 
portion in  the  county  Sligo.  Colonel  Cooper's  park  is  stocked 
with  about  fifty  deer,  chiefly  of  the  fallow  kind,  with  a  few  red 
deer  ;  and  Mr.  O'Hara,  Mr.  Perceval,  Mr.  Wynne,  and  Sir  Henry 
Gore  Booth's  parks  or  demesnes  contain  equally  large  numbers. 

Sligo  is  one  of  the  most  favourably  circumstanced  counties  of 
Ireland  in  respect  of  water,  containing  the  three  great  lakes  of 
Gill,  Arrow,  and  Gara,  with  scores  of  minor  lakes  and  lakelets ; 
the  four  great  rivers  of  Moy,  Uncion  or  Arrow,  Owenmore,  and 
the  Sligeach  or  Gara  vogue;  with  many  rivers  and  rivulets,  and 
quite  a  number  of  spring-wells — one  at  least  on  an  average  to  the 
townland — the  water  of  several  of  them,  being  so  pure,  limpid, 
and  palatable,  that  nothing,  it  is  said,  like  it  can  be  had  else- 
where. 

Lough  Gill  deserves  the  first  place  among  the  lakes  of  the 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  21 


county.  Reserving  for  another  place  some  remarks  on  its  appear- 
ance and  surroundings,  it  will  be  enough  to  state  here  that  it 
is  about  eight  miles  long  and  two  and  a-half  broad ;  and  that  it  is 
of  very  varying  depths,  the  changes  of  bottom  level  being  frequent 
and  abrupt,  resembling  in  this  respect  the  surface  of  the  adjoin- 
ing townlands  of  Corrownamodow  and  Aghamore,  which  is  a 
series  of  sharp  hills  and  hollows.  The  greater  part  of  Lough 
Gill  belongs  to  the  county  Sligo,  lying  between  the  barony  of 
Carbury  on  the  north,  and  that  of  Tirerrill  on  the  south,  but  a 
considerable  stretch  lies  in  the  County  Leitrim. 

Like  Lough  Gill,  Lough  Arrow  belongs  to  two  different 
counties,  a  part  of  it  being  in  Roscommon,  but  much  the  larger 
part  in  Sligo.  It  is  102  feet  above  sea  level,  is  about 
eight  miles  square,  though  owing  to  the  high  banks,  it  hardly 
looks  that  size.  It  is  famous  for  its  gilleroo  trout,  which  brings 
fishermen  from  all  quarters  in  the  month  of  May. 

Lough  Gara  called,  anciently,  Lough  Techet,  lies  partly  in 
each  of  the  three  counties  of  Sligo,  Roscommon  and  Mayo.  Its 
surface  elevation  above  the  sea  is  222  feet,  and  its  area  seven 
miles  square. 

The  minor  lakes  are  Esk,  which  stretches  between  Lsyney 
and  Tireragh,  is  a  mile  and  a  quarter  long,  and  607  feet  above 
sea  level ;  Talt  in  Leyney,  about  a  mile  long,  and  455  feet  above 
sea  level ;  Templehouse,  between  Corran  and  Leyney,  which  is 
an  expansion  of  the  Owenmore  river,  and  is  about  two  miles 
long,  and  386  feet  above  sea  level  ;  a  little  to  the  south  of  Tem- 
plehouse, Cloonacleigha,  three-fourths  of  a  mile  long,  and  400 
feet  above  sea  level ;  Tubberscanavan,  called  in  Down  Survey 
Knockmullen  Lough,  greatly  reduced  in  area  by  recent  drainage ; 
Ballygawley,  or  Ballydawley,  a  charming  little  lake  about  a  mile 
square,  lying  in  the  valley  between  Slieve  da  En  and  the  Ox 
Mountains  ;  Skean,  more  than  half  of  which  is  in  Roscommon ; 
Colgagh,  in  the  parish  of  Calry ;  Glencar,  partly  in  Sligo  and 
partly  in  Leitrim;  Cloonty,  near  Cliffony,  in  the  parish  of 
Ahamlish,  part  in  that  parish  and  part  in  the  county  Leitrim ; 
and  some  scores  of  lakelets  here  and  there  through  the  county, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


but  more  especially  on  the  northern  slopes  of  Slieve  Gamh  and 
Slieve  da  En,  where  they  often  take  a  deep  bowl  shape. 

The  Moy,  which  holds  the  first  place  among  Sligo  rivers,  is 
popularly  supposed  to  rise  in  a  well  in  the  townland  of  Cloondri- 
hara,  but  its  source  is  more  correctly  placed,  oil  the  Ordnance 
Survey  maps,  in  the  interior  of  the  Ox  Mountains,  where  its 
infantine  movements  escape  the  gaze  of  the  vulgar,  like  the 
infant  Nile,  which,  as  Lucan  tells,  is  similarly  privileged : — 
"Nee  lieuit  populis  parvum  te,  Nile,  videre." 

Even  when  the  mountain  stream  has  descended  into  the  valley, 
it  is  still  so  tiny  that  little  boys  can  easily  jump  across  it.  By 
degrees  as  the  Mad  river,  the  Owenaher,  the  Talt,  and  the  Owen 
Garrough,  pay  their  tributes,  it  swells  and  expands,  and  is 
already  a  fine  river  when  it  winds  around  the  quiet,  sacred 
groves  of  Benada  Convent,  in  measured,  noiseless  movement,  as 
if  guarding  against  disturbing  the  religious  meditations  of  that 
holy  retreat.  At  Rathmagurry,  it  enters  the  county  Mayo,  and 
after  a  detour  of  several  miles  in  that  county,  comes  back  from 
its  excursion,  and  joins  again  the  county  Sligo  at  a  point  about 
two  miles  above  Ballina,  from  which  point  it  forms  the  boundary 
between  the  two  counties. 

The  Sligeach  has  been  always  reckoned  one  of  the  chief  rivers 
of  Ireland,  and  is  numbered  by  Eochy  O'Flynn  among  those 
which  Partholan  is  said  to  have  found  before  him  on  coming  to 
the  country : — 

"Muadius,  SHgachua  Samerius  dictus — Buasuis  perennis  per  rura  amsena, 
Modornus,  Finnus  velde  limpidus— Banna  inter  Lee  et  JEile." 

It  is  about  two  miles  long  from  where  it  issues  from  the  lake 
to  the  Victoria  Bridge,  and  it  is  this  part  of  the  river  which 
received  the  name  of  Garavogue,  the  part  below  the  bridge  being 
known  from  time  immemorial,  as  SligeacJi.  Garavogue  or 
Awen  Garrough  signifies  Rough  River,  and  the  name  was 
applied  to  the  Sligo  river,  when  the  stream  was  shallow  and 
impeded  by  rough  stones  in  the  bed.  As  it  will  be  necessary  to 
recur  to  this  subject,  there  is  no  need  to  dwell  further  on  it  here. 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  23 


The  Arrow,  or  Uncion,  rises  in  Lough  Arrow,  runs  lor  ten 
miles  in  a  north-north-westerly  direction,  passing  by  Riverstown, 
Cooperhill,  and  Markrea,  and  joining  the  Ovvenmore  at  Col- 
looney,  flows  on  in  a  broad  and  rapid  stream  to  the  sea  at 
Ballysadare. 

The  Owenmore  takes  its  rise  in  Tubber-na-neeve  well,  in  the 
parish  of  Kilfree ;  forms  for  some  distance  the  mutual  boundary 
of  Corran  and  Coolavin ;  acquires  such  increase  near  Buninad- 
den  that  some  would  count  that  place  its  source  ;  passes  through, 
or  touches  on,  the  parishes  of  Kilshahy,  Drumrat,  Cloonoghill, 
and  Emlaghfad  in  Corran  ;  expands  at  Templehouse  into  a  lake, 
which  lies  partly  in  Corran  and  partly  in  Leyney ;  winds  in  loops 
through  theflat  lands  adjoiningthe  so-called  Island  near  the  village 
of  Ballinacarrow  ;  turns,  or  used  to  turn,  the  machinery  of  two 
or  three  mills  at  Thornhill  ;  moves  slowly  through  the  demesne 
of  Annaghmore  ;  receives,  as  it  quits  the  demesne,  the  tributary 
waters  of  the  Owenbeg,  or  Owen  na  Leave;  unites  with  the 
Uncion  at  Collooney ;  and,  greatly  increased  in  width  and  volume, 
hastens  over  the  intervening  slopes  and  ledges  to  the  bay  of 
Ballysadare.  As  this  river,  in  length  of  run,  body  of  water,  and 
picturesqueness  of  course  and  surroundings,  is  greatly  superior 
to  the  Arrow  or  Uncion,  it  is  strange  that  it  should  pass,  as  it 
commonly  does,  as  a  tributary  of  the  Uncion,  instead  of  the 
latter  being  counted  the  tributary,  and  the  Owenmore  the  prin- 
cipal river.  The  small  rivers  through  the  baronies,  though 
benefiting  greatly  their  respective  districts,  call  for  no  special 
notice  in  this  place. 

The  passage  of  the  Owenmore  through  Collooney  offers  some 
charming  views,  of  which  the  following  description  by  the  writer 
(Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet,  p.  50)  will  give  some  idea,  though 
a  very  imperfect  one.  "Coming  slowly  and  gravely  into  the  town, 
passing  demurely  by  the  beautiful  glebe  of  Ardcotton,  leaping 
playfully,  after  it  gets  from  under  the  rector's  eye,  over  two  or 
three  hundred  yards  of  fantastic  ledges,  till  it  makes  a  splendid 
plunge  of  twenty  feet  at  the  fall,  and  throws  up  a  cloud  of 
glittering  globules  to  hide  its  antics;  then  darting  rapidly  away 


24  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


to  the  east  in  a  bold  and  graceful  curve,  to  pay  its  respects  to 
McDonogh's  Castle ;  and,  after  receiving  the  waters  of  its  tribu- 
tary, the  Arrow  or  Uncion,  moving  with  a  sense  of  new  dignity 
majestically  along  under  the  overhanging  trees  of  Union 
Wood,  and,  like  Galatea  in  the  eclogue, 

'Et  fugit  ad  salices  et  se  cupit  ante  videri/ 

coming  out  now  and  again  from  under  the  shade  to  show  itself 
to  admirers  before  disappearing  finally  from  view  at  Ballysadare, 
our  river  discloses,  in  a  run  of  two  miles,  as  many  beauties  as 
any  other  river  in  Ireland  in  the  same  length." 

A  word  or  two  regarding  the  lineage  of  the  people  will  not  be 
out  of  place  before 'passing  on  to  the  separate  consideration  of 
the  baronies.  While  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  main  element 
in  the  population  of  Sligo  is  Celtic,  there  is  good  ground  for 
thinking  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  element  is  much  more  con- 
siderable than  is  commonly  supposed.  This  would  seem  to 
follow  clearly  from  the  crowds  of  people  that  came  over  to  this 
county  from  time  to  time  from  England  or  the  Lowlands  of 
Scotland,  and  settled  in  it.  As  will  be  seen  hereafter,  the  town 
of  Sligo,  when  first" founded  by  Maurice  Fitzgerald,  was  stocked 
with  English  inhabitants,  and  the  place  continued  English  while 
the  Fitzgeralds  and  Burkes  held  sway  in  Lower  Connaught, 
that  is,  for  about  a  hundred  years.  During  these  years  not  only 
the  town  but  most  of  the  county,  notably  the  baronies  of 
Leyney  and  Tireragh,  was  in  the  possession  of  the  foreigners, 
and  so  remained  from  1237,  when  the  Barons  of  England  began 
to  build  castles  in  Connaught,  down  to  about  1333,  when  they 
were  defeated  and  expelled  by  the  O'Haras,  O'Dowds,  and 
other  native  chieftains. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  streams  of 
immigrants  were  constantly  coming  across  the  channel  to  this 
part  of  Ireland,  and  settling  themselves  here  and  there  through 
it ;  and  after  the  ill-starred  Insurrection  of  1641,  the  Crom- 
wellians  invaded  the  county  en  masse,  spread  themselves  over 
its  different  districts,  and  occupied  the  town  of  Sligo  so  ex- 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  25 


clusively,  that  it  may  be  doubted,  whether  at  one  time  a  single 
Catholic  Celt  could  be  found  within  its  limits.  Nor  did  these 
accessions  cease  with  the  seventeenth  century.  They  have  been 
since  kept  up,  through  importations,  by  our  gentry,  of  batch 
after  batch  of  domestics  and  others,  who,  when  their  term  of 
service  expires,  and  one  batch  is  succeeded  in  office  by  another, 
instead  of  going  back  to  their  native  place  in  England  or 
elsewhere,  are  generally  located,  after  the  manner  of  an 
overflow  meeting,  on  such  valuable  farms  as  may  be  vacant  or 
available. 

These  invasions  and  immigrations  could  not  fail  to  affect 
largely  the  natural  descent  of  the  inhabitants.  The  masses  that 
came  over,  on  the  occasion  of  wars  or  insurrections,  like  the  indi- 
viduals who  came  over  for  domestic  service,  did  not  in  general 
return,  but  settled  down  in  the  county,  and  became  gradually 
absorbed  in  the  population.  The  English  and  Scotch  names  so 
often  met  with  in  all  the  baronies,  indicate  the  descendants  of  the 
immigrants,  though  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  foreign 
blood  is  much  more  common  in  the  neighbourhood  than  the 
foreign  names.  The  old  maxim  that  the  prefix  of  Mac  or  O 
makes  known  the  genuine  Irishman,  is  not  now  as  generally 
true,  at  least  in  the  cou  nty  Sligo,  as  it  used  to  be  in  the  past, 
or  as  it  may  still  be  in  other  counties ;  for  many  an  O'Connor, 
O'Hara,  O'Dowd,  or  MacDonogh,  notwithstanding  the  O  or  Mac, 
has,  perhaps,  as  much  Saxon  as  Celtic  blood  in  his  veins.  Let  any 
man  who  demurs  to  this  statement,  start  inquiries  with  regard  to 
particular  families  in  his  neighbourhood,  and  he  will  probably 
find,  while  examining  the  genealogical  tree  of  any  Celtic  family 
he  may  select,  that  he  will  not  have  to  go  far  back  to  discover 
more  than  one  Saxon  graft  on  the  Celtic  trunk.  And,  conversely, 
if  he  make  the  experiment  on  a  family  with  a  Saxon  name,  he  is 
likely  to  arrive  at  a  similar  result.  It  is  well  to  to  be  acquainted 
with  this  state  of  things,  both  for  the  sake  of  having  correct 
knowledge  on  the  subject,  and  in  the  interest  of  social  peace  and 
harmony ;  for  if  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  recollected  this 
relationship,  and  had  often  in  the  mind  the  mollifying  consider- 


26  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


ation,  that  they  are  not  only  living  side  by  side  in  the  same 
district,  but  that  the  same  blood  is  flowing  in  their  veins,  they 
would  hardly  be  so  prone,  as  they  have  too  often  shown  them- 
selves, to  look  on  one  another  as  aliens  and  enemies. 

So  much  having  been  said  regarding  the  county  at  large,  we 
shall  now  take  up  the  baronies  that  compose  it,  beginning  with 
Carbury. 


CHAPTER  II. 

BARONY  OF  CARBURY. 

CARBURY  takes  its  name  from  Cairbre,  third  son  of  Niall  of  the 
Nine  Hostages.  This  Niall  had  eight  sons,  Loegaire,  Conal 
Crimthan,  Fiach,  Manius,  Conal  Gulban,  Owen,  Cairbre,  and 
Ennius  ;  and  as  the  first  four  remained  in  the  southern  parts  of 
Ireland,  their  descendants  were  called  the  Southern  Hy-Nialls  ; 
while  the  descendants  of  the  last  four,  who  took  possession  of 
the  north,  got  the  name  of  the  Northern  Hy-Nialls.  John, 
O'Donovan,  in  a  note  to  the  Four  Masters,  under  the  year  669, 
supposes  the  migration  of  the  Carbrians  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Sligo,  to  be  subsequent  to  that  year  ;*  but  in  this  he  is  not 
only  in  error,  but  in  contradiction  with  himself,  for  in  a  note, 
under  the  year  598,  he  writes,  "  The  Cinel  Cairbre  were  at  this 
period  seated  in  the  barony  of  Carbury,  and  county  of  Sligo,"  to 
which  barony  they  gave  name.  Anyhow  the  entry  of  the  Four 
Masters  at  598,  is  so  clear  as  to  leave  no  room  for  doubt,  for  the 
Annalists  state  expressly  that  a  battle  was  fought  that  year  at 
Aughriss,  in  Tireragh,  between  the  descendants  of  Cairbre  and 
the  descendants  of  Fiachra/f-  which,  of  course,  supposes  the  for- 
mer to  be  in  the  neighbourhood  at  the  time ;  and  from  their 
being  there  at  that  time,  and  being  then  so  settled  and  organized, 
as  to  be  able  to  cope  successfully  with  the  powerful  people  of 
Tireragh,  we  may  reasonably  infer  that  they  were  in  the  district 
from  the  days  of  Cairbre  himself,  who,  in  his  own  day,  to  use 

*  "  The  race  of  Cairbre  were  at  this  period  seated  in  the  barony  of  Carbury,  in 
the  county  of  Longford,  but  their  descendants  afterwards  settled  in,  and  gave 
their  name  to,  the  present  barony  of  Carbury,  in  the  county  of  Kildare,  and  the 
barony  of  Carbury,  in  the  county  of  Sligo." 

t  "  The  battle  of  Eachros,  in  Muirisc,  by  Colman,  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre,  against 
Maelcothaigh,  chief  of  Cinel  Fiachra,  of  Muirisc ;  and  the  battle  was  gained 
over  Maelcothaigh." 


28  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


the  words  of  Colgan,  "possessed  in  Connaught  the  district 
called  after  him,  Carbury."*  Unlike  his  brothers  who,  between 
the  time  of  Saint  Patrick  and  the  year  1000,  furnished  in  their 
descendants  forty-five  monarchs  to  the  throne  of  Ireland — the 
Southern  Hy-Nialls,  19,  and  the  Northern,  26 — Cairbre  supplied 
only  one,  his  grandson,  Tuathal  Maelgarb;  and  old  writers 
ascribe  the  difference  to  a  curse  of  St.  Patrick  on  the  family,  for 
having  been  repeatedly  outraged  by  Cairbre,  who  seems  to  have 
been  a  particularly  ill-conditioned  and  brutal  person.-)- 

Though  Cairbre's  descendants  had  so  little  to  do  with  the 
throne  of  Ireland,  they  ruled  for  several  centuries  over  the  district 
of  Carbury  ;  and  a  diligent  search  in  the  Four  Masters,  and  other 
authorities,  has  enabled  the  writer  to  discover  the  names  of  the 
following  chiefs  of  that  district,  who  were  all  descendants  of 
'Cairbre,  through  one  or  other  of  his  two  sons,  Garban  and  Coman 
or  Coeman : — 

1.  Colman — He  was  the  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre,  who  defeated 
the  people  of  Tireragh  in  598. 

2.  Sgandal.    Mac  Firbis,  in  his  Genealogical  writings,*  thus 
mentions  this  ruler,  ".  Tuathal  Maolgarbh,  kiug  of  Ireland,  had 
two  sons,  namely,  Garban  (of  whom  was  Sgandal,  who  succeeded 
to  the  sovereignty;  Ui  Duibhduin,  and  Ui  Duibhne  of  Cill- 
espuig-Brone);  and  Coman  or  Coeman,  father  of  Hugh,  father 
of  Aongus  Bronbachall,  the  religious."     Sgandal  is  mentioned  in 
the  Four  Masters,  also.§ 

*  Trias  Thaumaturga,  p.  544. 

t  Tune  S.  Patricius  perrexit  ad  locum  agonis  regalis,  qui  dicitur  Tailtin,  ad 
alterum  filium  Neill  Corpre  .  .  .  Sed  Corpre  noluit  credere ;  voluit  vero 
jugulare  Patricium,  ideo  appellavit  Patricius  eum  inimicum  Dei,  et  dixit,  ei  ; 
Semen  tuum  serviet  seminibus  fratrum  tuorum  ;  et  de  semine  tuo  rex  non  erit 
in  seternum.— Trias  Thaumaturga,^.  25.  To  account  for  the  reign  of  TuathalMael- 
garb,  notwithstanding  this  prophecy,  Colgan  adds  in  a  note  (p.  45),  Ubi  hie  legitur 
Rex  non  erit,  legendum  est  Reges  non  erunt ;  nam  juxta  omnesnostros  historicos 
fuit  unus  rex  Hiberniae  de  semine  Corprei,  nempe  Tuathalius  cognomento 
Maelgarbh  ....  Unde  exactius  Auctor  Op.  Trip.  par.  2.,  cap.  4  and  27, 
sic  refert  maledictionem,  De  tua  stirpe  nee  reges  nee  regni  exurgent  piguora, 

t  Geneal.  MS.,  p.  167.     Quoted  by  Dr.  Reeves  in  his  Adamnan,  p.  41. 

§  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  665. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  2f> 


3.  Maelduin,  Sgandal's  son,  was  chief  of   Cinel  Cairbre  in 
665.* 

4.  Dubhduin,  another  son  of  Sgandal,f  succeeded  Maelduin, 
and  was  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre  in  669,  when  he  slew  Seachnasacb, 
monarch  of  Ireland. J 

5.  Aongus  Bronbachall,  called  the  Religious,  who  was  grand- 
son of  Coman,  ruled  as  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre,  though  we  cannot 
fix  his  exact  place  in  the  succession.     He  died,  according  to  the 
Annals  of  Ulster,  in  648.§     He  is  the  person  spoken  of  in  the 
13th  chapter  of  the  First  Book  of  Adamnan's  Saint  Columba,|j 
which  runs  thus,  "  This  man,  having  been  banished  with  his  two 
brothers  from  Ireland,  came  to  Columba,  who  was  then  living  in 
Britain ;  and  the  saint,  after  blessing  him,  thus  foretold  what 
was  to  happen  him  :  'This  youth,  surviving  all  his  brothers,  will 
bear  rule,  a  long  time  in  his  country;  nor  will  he  ever  fall  into 
the  hands  of  his  enemies,  but  will  die  in  old  age,  a  tranquil  death 
among  his  friends.'  A 11  this  happened  as  Columba  predicted."  This 
epithet  Bronbachall,  Dr.  O'Conor    renders  baculi  dolorosi,  in 
his  translation  of  the  Annals  of  Ulster ;  in  the  term  Dr.  Reeves 
thinks,  there  is  reference  to  the  "pilgrim's  staff;"  and  the  writer 
takes  leave  to  conjecture,  that  Aongus  must  have  taken  the 
"staff"  in  honour  of  Bishop  Bronus,  or  Brone,  a  conjecture 
which  derives  no  little  support  from  the  prefix  Broil,  and  also 
from  the  fact  that  some,  at  least  of  Aongus'  family,  lived  at 
Eallaspugbrone.^f 


*  Ibid.  f  Adanman's  Life  of  St.  Columba,  by  Dr.  lleeves,  p.  41. 

$  Four  Masters,  669. 

§A.C.  648,  Mors  OeDgusa,  Bron-bachlae  regisCeinuil  Coirpri. 

II  Page  41  of  Dr.  Reeves'  edition,  the  Latin  words  are:— "Hie  namque  de 
patria  cum  aliis  duobus  fratribus  effugatus,  ad  Sanctum  in  Britannia  peregri- 
nantem  exul  venit ;  cuique  benedicens  hoc  de  eo  prophetizans  sancto  promit  de 
pectore  verba  ;  Hie  juvenis  defunctis  ejus  ceteris  fratribus  superstes  remanens, 
multo  est  regnaturus  in  patria  tempore ;  et  inimici  ejus  coram  ipso  cadent ;  nea 
tamen  ipse  unquam  in  manus  tradetur  inimicorum,  sed  morte  placide  senex, 
inter  amicos  morietur.  Que  omnia  juxta  Sancti  verbum  simt  adempleta.  Hie 
est  Oingusius  cujus  cognomentum  Bronbachal." 

IF  His  cousin,  Ui  Duibhne,  is  set  down,  by  Mac  Firbis,  as  of  Cill-esping-Brone— 
Beeves'  Adainnan,  p.  41. 


30  HISTORY  OF  SLTGO. 

5.  Fergus,  son  of  Maelduin,  and  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre,  fell  in 
the  battle  of  Corann,  681.* 

6.  Muirghes,  another  son  of  Maelduin,  and  chief  of  Cinel 
Cairbre,  died,  according  to  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  in 
096,  and  according  to  the  Annals  of  Ulster,  in  697.     He  is  the 
"  Muirghes,  son  of  Maelduin,  son  of  Scannal,  an  illustrious  king 
of  Cairbre's  race,"  mentioned  in  Colgau's  Vita  Tripartita.-f 

7.  Conor,  who  was  also  a  son  of  Maelduin,  and  chief  of  Cinel 
Cairbre,  died  in  704.J 

8.  Conall  Mean   succeeded  Conor  as  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre, 
and  was  slain  in  718,  in  the  great  battle  of  Allen.§ 

9.  Flaherty,  son  of  Conall  Mean,  and  chief  of  Cinel  Cairbre, 
died  in  747.  || 

10.  Cathal,  son  of  Conali  Mean,  and  Lord  of  Carbury  Mor, 
died  in  766.H 

11.  Cathmugh,  son  of  Flaherty,  and  Lord  of  Carbury,  was 
slain  in  the  battle  of  Ard-mic-Rime  in  787.** 

12.  Dunadhach,  son  of  Raghallach,  Lord  of  Cinel  Cairbre 
Mor,  died  in  871.     Of  him  was  said : — 

"  Dunadhach,  a  noble  protection,  a  famous  man  by  whom  hostages  were  held, 
A  pious  soldier  of  the  race  of  Conn  (lies  interred)  under  hazel  crosses  at 
Drumcliff.ft 

13.  Fearghal,  son  of  Foghartach,  Lord  of  Cairbre  Mor,  died 
on  an  expedition  in  974.  tj 

14.  Donnchadh,  Lord   of  Cairbre,  was   killed   by  the  Hy- 
Fiachrach-Muirisc,   in   the   doorway   of  the   church   of    Serin 
Adamnan  in  1030.  §§ 

15.  Murchadh,  son  of  Searrach,  Lord  of  Cairbre  Mor,  died  in 
1032.  mi 

*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  sub  anno. 

f  A.D.  697,  Mors  Muirgisa,  Mic  Maelduin,  regis  Generis  Corpri. — Hennessy's 
Translation,  p.  439. 

£  Four  Masters,  sub  anno,  704. 

§  Ibid.,  718.  ||  Ibid.,  747. 

IT  Ibid.,  766.  **  Ibid.,  787. 

tt  Ibid.,  871.  K  Ibid.,  974. 

§§  Ibid.,  1030.  mi  Ibid.,  1032. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  31 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  all  these  were  chiefs  of  the 
county  Sligo  Carbury,  though  O'Donovan  regards  such  of  them, 
as  he  notices,  as  belonging  to  Carbury  Teffia,  in  the  present 
barony  of  Granard,  county  of  Longford. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  go  over  the  whole  list,  but  one  or  two 
cases  may  be  noticed,  to  give  a  sample  of  Mr.  O'Donovan's  modus 
agendi.  In  a  note  to  the  entry,  "  Cathal,  son  of  Conall, 
lord  of  Cairbre-Mor,  died,"  he  observes :  "  The  addition 
of  mor  to  Cairbre  here  is  probably  a  mistake  by  the 
Four  Masters ;"  and  to  confirm  this  conjecture  he  refers 
to  the  entry,  as  it  is  given  in  the  Annals  of  Ulster, 
where  it  reads  thus:  "  A.D.  770 — Cathal,  Mac  Conall  Minn,  ri 
Coirpri,  moritur  ; "  but  this  reference,  instead  of  making  for 
him,  tells  rather  against  him,  for  it  shows  that  the  Conall  of 
the  Four  Masters  is  the  Conall  Meann  who  fell  in  the  battle 
of  Allen,*  and  who  was  certainly  chief  of  the  Sligo  Carbury,  as 
he  is  set  down  both  in  the  Four  Masters  •(•  and  in  the  Chronicon 
Scotorum%  among  "  the  chieftains  and  leaders  of  Leath-Chuinn," 
who  fought  the  battle  of  Allen  against  the  Leinstermen, 
including,  of  course,  those  of  Carbury  Teffia  or  Granard.  At 
the  entry,  "  Dunadhach,  son  of  Raghallach,  Lord  of  Cinel 
Cairbre  Mor,"  he  remarks :  "  The  Cinel  Cairbre  Mor  was 
seated  in  the  barony  of  Granard,"  though  the  juxtaposition  of 
Drumcliff  and  Cairbre  Mor  should  have  made  it  clear  to  him 
that  there  was  question  of  the  Carbury  of  Sligo,  even  if  he 
forgot  that  Colgan,  our  greatest  authority  on  the  topography  of 
Ireland,  regards  Cairbre  Mor  and  Cairbre  Drumcliff  as  one 
and  the  same  place.  §  Whenever  indeed  the  phrase  "  Cinel 
Cairbre  "  occurs  in  the  first  thousand  years  of  the  Annals  of  the 
Four  Masters,  O'Donovan  takes  it  to  mean  the  Carbrians  of 
Longford,  though  invariably  it  designates  the  inhabitants  of 


*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  718.  t  Ibid. 

£  Chronicon  Scotorum.  Edited  with  a  translation.  By  William  M. 
Hennessy,  M.R.I.A.,  sub  anno,  718. 

§  Regio  quae  nunc  Carbre-mhor,  nunc  Carbre  Droma-cliabh  dicitur. — Acta 
Sanctorum,  p.  141. 


32  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 

our  SligoCarbury,  "Cairbre"  simply,*  or  "Cairbre-Teffia,"f  being 
employed  as  the  name  of  the  Longford  Carbury  ;  and  as  the  same 
distinction  is  observed  in  the  Chronicon  Scotorum,  it  is  the  more 
strange  that  O'Donovan  and  some  other  writers  should  miss  it. 
The  following  is  another  characteristic  example  of  the 
high-handedness  with  which  O'Donovan  brushes  out  of 
his  way  the  authorities  from  which  he  thinks  fit  to  differ. 
After  quoting  from  the  Annals  of  Ulster  the  entry,  "  Battle  of 
Taidbig,  in  which  the  Luigni  were  overthrown,  Cinel  Cairbre 
gained  the  victory,"  and  remarking  thereupon- — "  the  old  trans- 
lator in  Cod.  Clarend.  49,  has  mistaken  the  meaning  of  this  in 
the  following  version :  '  Battle  of  the  wood  called  Taidbig, 
where  Luigni  of  Connaught  were  overthrowne,  and  Generatio 
Cairbre,  conquerors,  vicloriam  accepit' ''  he  thus  settles  the 
matter  of  his  own  mere  motion,  and  without  alleging  a  particle 
of  either  reason  or  authority :  "  It  should  be — *  The  battle  of 
the  wood  called  Caille-Taidbig,  where  the  Luighni  [of  Meath] 
were  overthrown,  and  Generatio  Cairbre  victoriam  accepit.'  MJ 
Such  dogmatism,  pace  tanti  viri,  is  un  pen  trop  ;  for  not  even 
his  recognised  pre-eminence  among  modern  labourers  in  the 
field  of  Irish  language,  literature,  and  topography,  entitled  him 
to  the  privilege,  whenever  the  Four  Masters  or  approved  trans- 
lators of  our  annals  stood  in  the  way  of  some  peculiar  opinion 
of  his,  to  dispose  of  them  by  averring,  without  a  shred  of  proof, 
on  his  mere  ipse  dixit,  that  the  Four  Masters  had  mistaken 
their  facts,  and  the  translators  had  mistaken  their  originals. 
At  all  events,  it  is  patent  from  the  slips  just  mentioned,  and 
from  many  others  noticed  elsewhere  in  these  pages,  that 
O'Donovan  bestowed  comparatively  little  thought  on  the  county 
Sligo,  and  that,  in  consequence,  he  is  by  no  means  a  safe  guide 
to  its  history  and  antiquities. 


*  Four  Masters,  731  ;  and  Chronicon  Scotorum,  235,  249,  277. 

f  Four  Masters,  747.  Two  obits  under  this  year— one,  "  Flaherty,  chief  of 
Cinel  Cairbre  died ;  "  the  other,  "  Conaing  Ui  Duibhduin,  Lord  of  Cairbre 
Teffia,  died  " — would  alone  show  the  error  of  O'Donovan. 

£  Note  in  O'Donovan's  Four  Masters,  under  the  year  757. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  33 


Dwelling  in  Connaught,  the  Cinel  Cairbre  were  subject  to  the 
Kings  of  the  province  ;  first,  to  the  fourteen  Kings  of  the  Hy- 
Fiachrach  race  who  ruled  over  it,*  and,  next  to  the  Hy-Bruin 
Kings,  who  belonged,  mainly,  to  the  O'Conor  family.  As, 
however,  the  Carbrians  were  of  the  same  stock  as  the  Cinel 
Owen  and  Cinel  Connell,  they  had  a  greater  leaning  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Ulster!  than  to  those  of  Connaught,  with  whom 
they  were  often  at  variance.  After  the  sovereignty  of  the  pro- 
vince had  passed  from  the  Hy-Fiachrach  to  the  Hy-Bruin,  the 
O'Dowds  still  claimed  to  rule  over  Lower  Connaught,  which  in- 
cluded Carbury,  at  least  the  portion  of  it  to  the  south  of 
Drumcliff,  and  they  are  given  in  O'Dugan's  Typographical 
Poem,  as  "Lords  of  North  Hy-Fiachrach  from  the  Robe  to  the 
Codhnach  ;  "j  but  their  authority  over  Carbury  was  merely 
nominal;  for  we  know§  that  the  Cinel  Cairbre  were  strong 
enough  to  carry  hostilities  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Hy-Fiachrach 
territory,  and  to  defeat  its  people  even  on  their  own  ground. 

From  the  time  the  O'Connors  settled  in  Carbury,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  to  the  abolition  of  Irish  tenures  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  there  was  a  perpetual  contest  between  them  and 
the  Cinel  Connell  for  the  chief  authority  in  Carbury.  In  the 

*  "  Fourteen  Kings  of  the  race  of  Fiachra,"   &c. — Tribes  and  Customs  of 

Hy-Fiachrach,  p.  93. 
f  "  Of  the  dividend  of  the  Hy-Fiachrach  themselves 

Is  the  land  of  Cairbre  of  the  level  plains, 

But  of  the  Hy-Neill  is  the  lineage  of  the  men, 


The  Clann  Cairbre  of  the  flowery  white  mountains, 

Are  under  the  mansions  of  the  western  people." — Ibid.,  p.  277-279. 
"  Ard-Macha  belongs  to  Eoghan's  race, 

And  Derry  to  the  race  of  Connell ; 

The  seed  of  mild  Cairbre  have  Drumcliabh, 

Though  the  Connacians  like  it  not. 

May  their  thanks  and  their  blessings 

Conduce  unto  my  soul's  quiet, 

But  I  grieve  for  my  good  people, 

How  Cairbre  upon  them  pressed. 'V-  Book  of  Fenagh. 
I  Cambrensis  E versus— Edited  by  Rev.  Matthew  Kelly,  Vol.  I.,  p.  255. 
§  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  598. 

VOL.  I.  C 


34  HISTORY  OF   SL1GO. 


battle  of  Crich  Cairbre*  the  Cinel  Connell  asserted  their  claim, 
and  were  the  undoubted  chiefs  of  the  territory  for  near  two  cen- 
turies, as  appears,  first,  from  their  defending  the  territory  against 
all  invaders  ;f  second,  from  their  taking  up  the  chieftain's 
rents  ;  J  third,  from  their  alienating  a  portion  of  the  territory  ;  § 
and,  fourth,  from  their  enemies  regarding  any  injury  inflicted  on 
the  district  as  an  injury  inflicted  on  the  Cinel  Connell.||  The 
O'Connor  family  did  not  submit  to  this  supremacy,  and,  in  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  not  only  vindicated  the  right 
to  be  paramount  themselves  in  Carbury,  but  invaded  Tyrconnell, 
and  acquired  there,  for  a  short  time,  authority  over  the 
O'Donnells.  The  latter,  however,  maintained,  all  through,  their 
pretensions  to  Carbury  and  Lower  Connaught ;  and,  so  late  as 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  we  find  Manus  O'Donnell 
taking  up  the  rents  of  Lower  Connaught,  and  even  petitioning 
Henry  VIII.  to  be  made  Earl  of  Sligo,  where,  the  petition 
alleged,  "his  ancestors  had  held  the  castle  for  a  thousand  years ;" 
an  allegation,  by  the  way,  egregiously  at  variance  with  the  fact, 
for  at  the  date  of  the  petition  (April  22,  1542),  the  castle  was 
only  completing  the  three  hundredth  year  of  its  existence.  No 
English  monarch  gave  any  countenance  to  this  extravagant  am- 
bition of  the  O'Donnells,  and  in  1603,  when  Rory  O'Donnell,  on 
the  death  of  Hugh  Roe,  in  Spain,  was  about  to  be  created 
Earl  of  Tyrconnell,  James  I.  ordered  that  he  should  first 
"  renounce  all  claim  upon  O'Connor  Sligo's  country,"  which 
Rory  accordingly  did, 

Having  premised  these  remarks  on  the  old  Irish  Chiefs  of 
Carbury,  we  will  now  consider  the  district  in  detail,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  parish  by  parish,  beginning  with  the  town  of  Sligo, 
which  is  the  capital  of  the  barony,  as  well  as  of  the  county,  and 
which  is  situated  in  the  ecclesiastical  union  of  Sligo,  partly  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  river,  and  partly  on  the  right.  The  parochial 
union  of  Sligo  consists  at  present  of  the  parishes  of  St.  John, 
Kilmacowen,  and  Killaspugbrone. 

*  Four  Masters,  1181.        f  Four  Masters,  1187.        $  Ibid,  1213. 
§  Ibid,  1230.        I!  Ibid,  1235. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    TOWN    OF    SLIGO. 

THE  scenery  around  Sligo  is  admitted  to  be  at  least  equal  to  that 
of  any  other  town  or  city  in  Ireland.  So  much  is  allowed  by  all 
who  visit  the  place  ;  but  those,  who  try  to  discriminate  more 
nicely,  will  come  probably  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  environs  of 
Sligo  are  decidedly  superior  in  beauty  to  anything  of  the  kind  in 
the  country.  If  the  elements  of  first-rate  landscape— mountain 
and  valley,  wood  and  water,  picturesqueness  of  outline  and  soft- 
ness of  colouring — are  to  be  had  in  other  places,  it  will  be  found 
on  comparison,  that  they  do  not  exist  in  such  perfect  combin- 
ation in  those  places  as  upon  the  banks  of  the  Garvogue.  Be 
the  stand-point  where  it  will  in  the  neighbourhood — north,  south, 
east,  or  west — and  the  prospect  is  exceptionally  fine,  though  that 
to  the  north,  extending  from  Knocklane,  in  the  west,  to  the  head 
of  Loughgill  in  the  east,  is,  perhaps,  the  finest. 

Of  this  beautiful  region  the  background  is  all  mountain, 
and  the  foreground  a  sweep  of  rich,  gently  swelling,  or 
gently  sloping  land,  every  perch  of  which  is  under  the  eye,  all 
the  way  from  the  sea  to  Benbo,  which  hill,  though  not  belonging 
to  Sligo  county,  contributes  not  a  little  to  its  embellishment. 

The  mountain  part  of  this  view  can  hardly  be  surpassed, 
Though  the  ranges  are  only  about  1000  feet  high,  you  find 
they  could  not  be  higher  without  marring  the  beauty  of  the 
scene,  by  imparting  to  it  a  gloom,  of  which  there  is  now  no 
trace,  and  also  by  shutting  ou  t  the  view  of  the  Donegal  moun- 
tains, which  at  present  serve  to  perfect  and  complete  the  land- 
scape. Towards  Dromahair  the  crest  of  the  range  is  a  good 
deal  broken,  the  blocks  or  masses  taking  various  shapes,  the  pre- 
vailing one  being  circular,  like  that  of  a  truncated  cone.  A 
beautiful  example  of  this  formation  is  the  cone  called  O'Korke's 
Table,  from  its  resemblance  to  a  round  table ;  but  local  tradition 


36  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


has  not  yet  decided,  whether  it  was  here,  or  in  the  hospitable 
Hall  of  Dromahair,  came  off — 

" O'Rorke's  noble  feast,  that  shall  ne'er  be  forgot 

Or  by  those  who  were  there,  or  by  those  who  were  not." 

Not  far  from  the  table  is  another  and  a  higher  block,  to  which 
the  country  folk  give  the  name  of  O'Rorke's  Chair — doubtless 
some  chair  of  state,  if  not  the  inauguration  chair;  for  if 
intended  to  supply  the  chief  with  a  seat  at  the  banqueting 
table  aforesaid,  he  must  have  been  put  to  a  great  disadvantage, 
by  the  distance,  in  the  management  of  his  knife  and  fork. 
Further  on  is  another  section  of  the  mountain  called  Cooleageboy, 
a  kind  of  circle  too  in  form,  but  in  itself  rougher  and  more 
massive  than  either  the  Table  or  the  Chair.  Looking  at  it  from 
near  its  base,  a  man  of  lively  imagination  would  soon  come  to 
trace  some  resemblance  between  its  shaggy  sides  and  the  shako 
of  a  grenadier.  Between  Coologeboy  and  Benbulben 
intervenes  Cashel  Gal  or  Slieve-gan-baiste  mountain,  a  fine  bold 
range,  which  would  be  more  thought  of  if  found  elsewhere,  but 
which  suffers  from  its  neighbourhood  with  the  beautiful  Ben- 
bulben. Go  where  you  will  through  Ireland;  pass  in  review 
whatever  is  excellent  and  most  admired  in  the  mountain  scenery 
of  Kerry,  Connemara,  Down,  Donegal  and  Antrim  ;  and  if  you 
have  taste,  and  are  without  prejudice,  you  will  admit  that,  both 
as  to  outline  and  colouring,  there  is  nothing  equal  to,  nothing 
almost  second  to,  the  graceful,  the  stately,  the  incomparable 
Benbulben.  Straight  as  an  arrow,  symmetrical  through  its 
length  in  all  its  proportions,  sleek  and  glossy  as  a  well  groomed 
horse,  it  gives  the  idea  of  flesh  rather  than  of  stone ;  and  there 
are  certain  points  in  Tireragh  and  Leyney,  from  which,  if  you 
look,  you  bring  Benbulben  and  Knocknarea  into  exact  line,  and 
get  inclined  to  fancy  that  they  are  things  of  life,  engaged  in  a 
race  westward,  but  just  brought  to  a  stand  by  the  sea  appearing 
suddenly  in  front. 

Another  object  which  Benbulben,  or,  rather,  the  more  northern 
portion  of  it,  resembles,  is  the  forepart  of  a  ship,  but  of  a  ship  in 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  37 


an  inverted  position  ;  for  the  straight  crest  is  like  the  upturned 
keel,  the  curved  face  like  the  prow,  and  the  sloping  sides  like 
the  hull,  with  deck  underneath. 

A  gentleman  familiar  with  the  form  of  the  modern  war  ship, 
called  the  ram,  says  that  the  "  keel "  of  the  mountain — just  as  it 
stands,  in  its  natural  position,  looks  like  the  sub-aqueous  beak 
with  which  that  ship  pierces  the  man-of-war  against  which  it  is 
propelled. 

The  region  in  front  of  those  mountains  is  not  unworthy  of  the 
beautiful  back-ground.  The  stretch  from  Knocklane  to  near 
Dromahair  is  some  twelve  or  fourteen  miles  long,  while  the 
average  depth  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  for  one  part 
of  the  lengtb,  and  between  the  mountains  and  tbe  lake,  for  the 
remainder,  is  about  four  or  five  miles.  The  lie  of  the  land  is  a 
gentle  slope  down  to  the  water's  edge,  with  here  and  there  little 
knolls  and  swells,  which  give  variety  to  the  scene,  without  hiding 
any  of  it  from  the  eye. 

Man's  taste  and  industry  have  co-operated  with  the  bounty  of 
nature  in  enriching  and  embellishing  this  favoured  tract ;  for 
cultivation  has  developed  all  the  fine  properties  of  the  soil,  so 
that  such  tillage  fields,  as  the  district  contains,  are  models  of 
tasteful,  skilful,  and  fruitful  husbandry  ;  while  the  green  sward 
which  covers  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole  area  is  greener 
and  glossier,  more  especially  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
of  Lough  Gill,  than  can  be  seen  in  any  other  part,  even  of 
•"  Our  own  Green  Isle." 

If  travellers  often  complain  of  the  bleak,  bare,  and  treeless 
condition  of  many  other  parts  of  Ireland,  they  can  find  no  such 
drawback  here ;  for  timber  abounds,  not  only  in  the  fine  demesne 
of  Lissadell,  at  one  end  of  the  stretch,  and  in  that  of  Hazel  wood,  at 
the  other,  but  in  the  intermediate  sweep  too,  where  trees  are 
numerous,  and  occur  sometimes  in  single  line,  sometimes  in  belts 
of  several  lines  deep,  and  again  in  symmetrical  clumps,  which 
not  unfrequently  embosom  imposing  mansions  or  cosy  cottages. 

A  fact  which  shows  the  superiority  of  this  region  in  natural 
beauty  is,  that  it  extorted  the  admiration  of  so  able  and  pre- 


38  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


judiced  a  judge  as  Carlyle.  Though  he  had  hardly  a  good  word 
for  any  other  part  of  Ireland,  when  he  visited  the  country  in 
1849  ;  though  his  judgments  of  the  districts  through  which  he 
passed  are  brimful  of  contempt,  such  as  "  an  ugly  hare,  moory 
country,"  "  a  dingy,  desolate  looking  country,"  "  a  scrubby  ill- 
cultivated  country,"  "  ragged  avenues  of  wood  not  quite  so  ugly 
as  nothing,"  "  troublous  hugger-mugger  aspect  of  stony  fields 
and  frequent,  nearly  all,  bad  houses ;"  though  .he  damns  even 
Killarney  with  such  faint  praise  as  "  rather  beautiful,  by  contrast 
especially ;  well  enough  but  don't  bother  me  with  audibly 
admiring  it,"  still,  the  moment  he  comes  in  view  of  the  environs 
of  Sligo,  even  at  such  a  distance  as  Dromore,  on  the  road  from 
Ballina,  a  change  comes  suddenly  over  him,  as  appears  from 
those  words  of  his  diary,  "  Country  alters  here  .  .  .  beautiful 
view  of  the  sea,  of  Sligo  bay,  with  notable  mountains  beyond  .  .  . 
much  indented  coast  .  .  .  decidedly  a  pleasant  region,  with 
marks  of  cultivation  everywhere,  tho'  still  too  treeless ;"  but 
when  he  reaches  the  high  ground  over  the  town,  and  the  full 
panorama  of  the  region  lies  expanded  before  him — the  stately 
heights  of  Benbulben,  Cashelgal,  and  Knocknarea — the  wide 
undulating  plain  of  Magherow  diversified  with  wood,  and  coppice, 
and  tillage  fields,  and  sweeps  of  pasture  lands,  that  seem  instinct 
with  the  life  of  the  flocks  and  herds  which  move  over  them — the 
soft  emerald  slopes  of  Hazel  wood  and  Holy  well,  lined  into 
avenues,  or  diapered  into  geometrical  figures,  with  trees  as 
flourishing  and  stately  as  the  cedars  of  Libanus — the  winding 
bay  on  the  one  hand,  the  sweet  shining  lake  on  the  other — the 
fine  public  buildings  of  the  town,  and  the  attractive  residences 
of  all  kinds,  scattered  in  conspicuous  positions,  over  the  country — 
when  all  this  breaks  at  once  upon  the  view,  the  evil  spirit  is  at 
last  exorcised  outright ;  and  as  Balaam,  who  came  to  curse, 
cried  out,  *'  How  beautiful  are  thy  tabernacles,  0  Jacob,  and  thy 
tents,  O  Israel !  As  woody  valleys,  as  watered  gardens  near  the 
rivers,  as  tabernacles  which  the  Lord  hath  pitched,  as  cedars 
by  the  waterside ;"  so  the  cynical,  hostile,  prejudiced,  spiteful 
Carlyle,  softened  and  warmed  by  the  scene  before  him,  and 


HISTORY   OF   SLICK).  39 


carried,  as  it  were,  out  of  himself,  exclaims,  "  Sligo  at  last ; 
beautiful  descent  into  it  ;  'beautiful  town  and  region  altogether.19 

The  town  of  Sligo  is  modern  when  compared  with  many  other 
towns  in  Ireland.  While  the  history  of  these  may  be  traced 
back  with  ease  to  the  earlier  centuries  of  our  era,  there  is  no 
evidence  to  show  that  Sligo  existed,  either  under  its  present 
name,  or  under  a  different  one,  at  any  time  anterior  to  the 
thirteenth  century.  Though  this  assertion  will  come  with  sur- 
prise on  minds  which  have  got  their  notions  of  Sligo  from  certain 
silly  stories,  which  would  connect  the  town  with  "  prehistoric 
ages,"  it  is  not  the  less  true  on  that  account,  as  those  stories 
themselves  have  not  a  particle  of  proof  to  support  them. 

Not  only  is  there  no  proof,  but  there  is  not  even  any  pro- 
bability, internal  or  other,  in  favour  of  this  alleged  antiquity.  On 
the  contrary,  probability  of  the  one  kind  and  the  other,  points 
unmistakably  to  the  modern  origin  of  the  town. 

For,  first,  the  situation  of  the  place  lying  at  the  bottom  of 
the  deep  basin  formed  by  the  overhanging  hills  of  Rathvritoge 
(the  Green  Fort)  and  Cairns,  and  the  high  ridge  of  land  to  the 
south-west,  would  prevent  people  from  congregating  or  settling 
there  in  times  of  such  lawlessness  and  rapaciousness  that  men 
needed  to  be  always  on  the  watch  against  enemies  and  free- 
booters. In  such  a  state  of  things,  the  chief  recommendation  of 
places  of  habitation  or  resort  was,  that  they  should  afford  an 
extensive  prospect,  so  as  to  enable  one  to  descry  at  a  distance 
the  approach  of  marauders ;  and  it  was  under  the  influence  of 
this  consideration  that  the  earlier  inhabitants  of  Ireland  con- 
structed raths — the  residences  of  remote  times — in  high  situ- 
ations, held  assemblies  on  the  tops  of  hills,  ran  roads  across 
mountains — eschewing  everywhere  the  valleys — and  raised  the 
round  tower  to  such  a  height  as  to  command  a  view  of  all  the 
circumjacent  country.  So  potent  was  this  principle  of  action 
that  it  operated  beyond  the  grave  ;  for  the  dying  man  took  care 
that  his  body  after  death  should  repose  on  some  one  of  those  hills 
which  he  frequented  during  life,  as  if  he  felt  that  what  survived 
of  him  could  not  be  otherwise  sufficiently  secure  from  outrage. 


40  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Proofs  and  illustrations  of  these  remarks  lie  scattered  abun- 
dantly over  Ireland  in  all  the  remains  of  antiquity ;  and  we  shall 
find  that,  nowhere,  are  they  in  greater  number  than  throughout 
the  county  Sligo,  if  we  only  call  to  mind  the  cairns  which  sur- 
mount Knocknarea,  Cairns-Hill,  Slieve  da  En,  the  Ox  Moun- 
tains, Keash,  and  Knocknashee,  as  well  as  the  raths  and  cashels 
which  line  the  coast  from  the  Moy  to  the  Drowes,  and  lie  thick 
through  all  the  inland  districts  from  the  north  of  Carbury  to 
the  south  of  the  barony  of  Leyney ;  this  latter  territory,  from  the 
great  number  it  contains  of  those  conspicuous  raths  or  forts, 
being  formerly  called  Leyney  of  the  Fortifications.*  Those 
various  structures,  situated  always  on  eminences  or  other  com- 
manding positions,  and  hardly  ever  in  hollows,  serve  to  prove 
that  a  low-lying,  secluded  situation,  like  that  of  Sligo,  whatever 
might  be  its  advantages  in  other  respects,  would  never  have 
been  chosen  in  those  times  for  a  centre  of  population.  To  select 
such  a  site  for  such  a  purpose  would  look  like  bringing  people 
into  a  cul  de  sac,  only  to  deliver  them  up  to  their  enemies  with- 
out means  of  defence  or  chance  of  escape. 

And  external  probability  leads  to  the  same  conclusion  as 
internal.  In  the  two  or  three  allusions  to  Sligo,  which  are  found 
in  our  earliest  authorities,  the  reference  is,  in  each  case,  to  the 
river  of  the  place  and  not  to  a  town.  Tirechan,  in  his  Annotations 
in  the  Book  of  Armagh,  after  recording  the  foundation  of  a 
church  at  Killaspugbrone  by  Saint  Patrick,  represents  the  saint 
telling  the  monks  of  the  new  house,  that  the  sea  would  encroach 
on  them  in  the  latter  days,  and  that  they  would  be  forced  to 
remove  to  the  river  Sligo,  "  hard  by  the  wood :  "  from  which  obser- 
vation, it  would  appear,  that  it  was  a  wood  and  not  a  town  that 
stood,  in  the  time  of  Saint  Patrick,  on  the  banks  of  the  Sligo 
river.f 

*The  Battle  of  Magh  Rath,  with  a  translation  and  notes,  by  John 
O'Donovan.  Page  253. 

t  "Et  dixit  ecce  mare  jeciet  nos  de  hoc  loco  in  novissimis  temporibus  et 

exibitis  ad  flumen  Sliachae  ad  sylvam."— Irish  Antiquarian  Researches,  by  Sir 

dliam  Betham.   Part  ii.  Appendix,  page  xxxii.    Betham  misses  the  meaning 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  41 


The  next  allusion  to  Sligo,  which  we  meet  with,  is  connected 
also  with  the  history  of  St.  Patrick,  and,  like  the  one  we  have 
been  considering,  relates  to  the  river.  It  occurs  in  the  Vita 
Tripartite^,  where  we  are  told  that  the  saint,  having  reached  the 
river  Sligech,  and  having  been  treated  very  kindly  and  obligingly 
by  some  fishermen,  whom  he  met  there,  blessed  the  river  in 
requital  of  their  kindness,  and  made  it  exceptionally  fruitful. 
There  is  one  other  early  mention  of  the  river.  It  is  contained 
in  the  old  life,  printed  by  Colgan,  of  Saint  Farannan,  in  the  in- 
teresting passage  which  enumerates  the  saints  who  had  assembled 
at  Easdara  (Ballysadare),  to  meet  and  honour  Saint  Columba 
after  the  Convention  of  Drumceat,  "  Ita  of  Sligech  or  the  Sli- 
gech "  being  there  given  among  those  who  were  present  on  the 
occasion.  The  absence  of  any  indication  of  a  town  in  those  three 
references  goes  far  to  show  that  no  town  existed  in  the  times  to 
which  they  relate  ;  but  the  omission,  coupled  with  the  internal 
probability  derived  from  the  nature  of  the  place,  and  the 
character  of  the  period,  is  so  conclusive  as  to  leave  no  room  for 
doubt  upon  the  subject  in  the  mind  of  any  reasonable  man. 

Passing  now  from  those  incidental  notices  of  Sligo,  which  ap- 
pear to  be  the  only  early  notices  of  the  kind  in  existence,  as  the 
"  Book  of  Armagh  contains  perhaps  all  the  old  fragments  of 
Irish  literature  now  remaining  to  us,"  and  coming  to  the  direct 
references  to  the  place,  which  are  contained  in  the  historical 
annals  of  the  country,  we  shall  look  there  too  in  vain  for  any 
sign  of  a  town  existing  prior  to  the  date  already  set  down. 

The  first  mention  of  Sligo  which  we  find  in  the  regular  history 
of  the  country  occurs,  in  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  under 
the  year  A.D.  537 ;  in  the  Annals  of  Tighernack  under  the  year 
A.D.  543;  and  in  the  Chronicon  Scotorum  at  the  same  date. 
The  entry  opens  with  the  words,  "The  Battle  of  Sligo;"  and 

of  this  passage,  and  gives  it  the  following  absurd  translation  : — "  And  he  said, 
behold  the  sea  lays  before  us,  from  this  place,  and  ye  will  return  by  the  river 
Sligo  to  the  wood." — Ibid.  p.  880.  The  correct  rendering  of  the  passage  is, 
"  And  he  said,  Behold  the  sea  will  cast  us  forth  out  of  this  place  in  the  latter 
times,  and  you  will  go  away  to  the  river  Sligo,  hard  by  the  wood." 


42  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


that  Sligo  here  means  the  river  of  Sligo  we  have  the  unimpeach- 
able authority  of  O'Donovan,  who  expressly  says  so  in  a  note  to 
the  passage,  in  his  edition  of  the  Four  Masters. 

But  this  entry  and  the  battle  it  records,  are  too  important  in 
their  bearing  on  Sligo  history  to  be  dismissed  in  a  sentence ; 
and  the  more  especially,  as  the  writer  cannot  help  thinking  that 
this  battle  is  connected  with  the  extraordinary  sepulchral  monu- 
ments of  Carrowmore,  "  the  largest  collection  of  monuments  of 
the  kind  in  the  British  islands,  and,  probably,  with  the  exception 
of  that  of  Carnac,  in  Brittany,  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world/'* 

Hitherto  these  structures  have  been  supposed  to  date  from  the 
time  of  the  Firbolgs  and  Tuatha  de  Danaans,  and  to  mark  the 
site  of  a  great  conflict  between  their  contending  armies,  but  the 
advocates  of  this  opinion  have  to  face  the  objection  that  there  is 
neither  written  record  nor  oral  tradition  in  support  of  such  a 
battle  in  the  locality.  To  meet  this  difficulty  they  give  out  that 
the  defeated  Firbolgs,  when  retreating  from  the  bloody  field  of 
the  southern  Moytura,  according  to  some,  of  the  northern 
Moy  tura,  according  to  others,  were  overtaken  in  the  Peninsula  of 
Cnil  Irra,  by  the  victorious  enemy,  and  cut  to  pieces,  so  that  the 
place  was  covered  with  the  dead.  They  add,  that  the  bodies 
were  buried  where  they  lay,  and  that  the  circles  and  cromlechs 
which  we  now  see,  and  numerous  others,  which  have  disappeared, 
were  erected  over  the  slain  by  their  surviving  comrades.f  This 
explanation  looks  plausible  enough  at  the  first  view,  but  the 


*  Proceedings  of  Royal  Irish  Academy,  Vol.  I.,  p.  140,  In  a  letter  addressed 
from  Rath  Carrick  to  Sir  Thomas  Larcom,  Mr.  Petrie  writes,  "I  have  now 
completed  the  list  of  this  remarkable  series  of  ancient  monuments  which,  ex- 
cepting the  monuments  of  Carnac,  in  Brittany,  is,  even  in  its  present  state  of 
ruin,  the  largest  assemblage  of  the  kind  hitherto  discovered  in  the  world." 
—The  Life  of  George  Petrie,  &c.,  by  William  Stokes,  &c.,  p.  253. 

t  "  I  have  no  doubt,"  says  Petrie,  "  but  I  shall  hereafter  be  able  to  prove 
that  these  are  the  tombs  of  the  Belgse,  who,  after  the  battle  of  the  southern 
Moytuira,  in  Mayo,  retreated  into  this  peninsula  of  Cuil  Irra,  having  been 
again  defeated  and  their  King  slain  in  crossing  the  strand  of  Ballysadare  Bay, 
— Life  of  George  Petrie,  &c.,  p.  254. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  43 


drawback  is,  that  it  is  all  assumption,  pure  and  simple,  without 
a  shred  of  proof.  And  there  are  on  the  contrary  one  or  two 
objections  which  serve  to  discredit  it ; — as,  first,  that  the  un- 
fortunate Firbolgs,  in  the  hurry  to  get  away  from  their  victors, 
had  no  time  to  engage  in  such  works;  and,  second,  that  no 
similar  memorials  are  to  be  found  at  Moytura,  where  the  main, 
battle  is  assumed  to  have  been  fought,  and  where  it  is  natural 
to  suppose  that  still  greater  slaughter  prevailed.  Had  the 
Firbolgs  at  any  time  subsequent  to  the  date  of  the  battle  been 
able  to  set  monuments  over  the  remains  of  their  brethren  in 
Cuil  Irra,  they  would  not  have  neglected  to  pay  a  like  tribute 
of  respect  to  those  who  had  fallen  at  Moytura. 

Turning  now  to  the  writer's  views  regarding  the  Battle  of 
Sligo,  it  will  be  convenient,  first  of  all,  to  set  under  the  eye  of 
the  reader  the  entry  of  the  Four  Masters  on  the  subject.  It 
runs  thus  : — "  The  battle  of  Sligeach  by  Fergus  and  Domhnall, 
the  two  sons  of  Muircheartach  Mac  Earca ;  by  Ainmire,  son  of 
Sedna  ;  and  Ainnidh,  son  of  Duach,  against  Eoghan  Bel,  King 
of  Connaught.  They  routed  the  forces  before  them,  and  Eoghan 
Bel  was  slain,  of  which  was  said, 

The  battle  of  the  Ui-Fiachrach  was  fought 

With  fury  of  edged  weapons  against  Bel, 

The  kine  of  the  enemy  roared  with  the  javelins, 

The  battle  was  spread  out  at  Grinder. 

The  Sligeach  bore  to  the  great  sea 

The  blood  of  men  with  their  flesh, 

They  carried  many  trophies  across  Eabha, 

Together  with  the  head  of  Eoghan  Bel." 

The  magnitude  of  this  battle  may  be  inferred  from  the  rank 
of  those  engaged  in  it.  On  one  side  Fergus  and  Domhnall,  sons 
of  the  late  monarch,  the  renowned  Muircheartach  Mac  Earca, 
who  has  been  styled  the  "  Hector  of  the  O'Neills,"  marched  at 
the  head  of  the  Cinel  Eoghan  ;  while  on  the  same  side  Ainmire 
and  Ainnidh,  or  Ninnidb,  the  grandsons  of  Conal  Gulban,  led  the 
troops  of  Cinel  Conaill,  the  two  contingents  comprising  all  the 
forces  of  Ulster.  On  the  other  side,  Eoghan  Bel,  the  King  of 


44  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Connaught,  led  in  person  the  men  of  Connaught.  The  scene  of 
the  conflict  stretched  from  the  estuary  of  Sligo  to  the  estuary  of 
Ballysadare,  and  was  "  spread  out "  at  Grinder,  a  place  which, 
though  hitherto  unidentified,*  may  be  Carrow  Crin,f  a  spot 
situated  on  the  edge  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Ballysadare  river 
or  channel.  Within  these  limits  the  battle  mainly  raged,  but 
as  it  is  stated  in  the  lines  quoted,  that  some  of  those  engaged 
were  drowned  in  the  Sligeach,  and  that  their  bodies  were  carried 
out  to  sea,  we  might  perhaps  conclude  that  the  Connaught-men, 
either  before,  or  during  the  battle,  had  reached  the  north  side  of 
the  river,  and  suffered  heavy  loss  while  driven  back  across  it  by 
the  victorious  enemy  to  the  south  side,  where  the  defeat  of  the 
Connaught  forces  would  have  been  consummated  with  great 
slaughter. 

To  enable  us  still  more  to  realize  the  lie  of  the  battle-field,  as 
well  as  to  throw  light  on  much  that  shall  be  said  later  on,  it  will 
be  well  to  indicate  here  the  route  usually  pursued  by  the  North- 
men in  their  invasions  of  Connaught,  and  by  the  Connaught- 
men  in  their  inroads  on  Ulster ;  and  this  we  cannot  well  do 
without  first  divesting  ourselves  of  all  associations  connected 
with  the  present  town  of  Sligo,  with  its  approaching  roads,  its 
bridges,  streets,  and  adventitious  surroundings,  and  carrying  the 
thoughts  back  to  a  time  when  these  roads,  bridges,  streets  and 
surroundings  did  not  exist,  and  the  site  was  a  wild  wood.  Such 
was  the  state  of  things  at  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Sligo,  and  for 
several  centuries  later.  In  those  early  times  the  Ulster  men, 
after  crossing  the  Erne  at  Ballyshannon  or  Belleek,  moved  on 
through  Bundoran,  Bunduff,  Bundrowes,  Cliffoney,  Grange, 
keeping  all  along  as  close  to  the  sea  as  they  could,!  till  they 
reached  Breaffy,  when  they  turned  towards  Lissadell,  and  passed 


*" This  might  be  read  'at  Hinder,'  but  neither  form  of  the  name  is  now- 
extant." — O'Donovan's  note,  A.T.M. 

t  Commonly  called  Kelly's  Town  at  present ;  and  in  the  past  it  sometimes 
got  the  name  of  Belfersdy,  i.e.  Mouth  of  the  Ford. 

+  Ordnance  Survey  Letter  Book  of  County  Sligo. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  45 


on  through  Ballygilgan  and  Carney,  to  Fined.  Here,  if  necessary, 
they  halted  till  the  tide  was  out,  when  they  passed  the  strand 
to  Doonierin  road.  From  Doonierin  they  moved  through  Gregg 
and  Ballincar  to  the  point  called  in  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  Reanna-an-Liagain,*  and  known  at  present  to  the  pilots 
of  the  Rosses  as  Stand-alone-point,but  given  correctly  inNimmo's 
map  as  "  Stone- Alone-Point ; "  and  now,  instead  of  going  up  to 
the  site  of  Sligo  town,  where  there  was  no  means  of  passing  the 
river,  they  crossed  the  channel  and  strand  to  the  Finisklin  side. 
Leaving  Finisklin  or  Gibraltar,  they  soon  reached  Carrowcrin, 
the  next  stage  in  their  journey,  and  from  Carrowcrin  passed 
easily  the  Fiontragh  strand,  when  the  tide  was  off  it,  to  Streams- 
town,  in  the  parish  of  Bally  sadare,  over  a  fearsat  or  ford  in  the 
channel,  marked  in  the  Down  Survey  map  arid  and  much 
frequented  down  to  half  a  century  ago.}  At  Streamstown  the 
whole  of  Connaught  lay  before  them — to  the  right,  Tireragh  and 
Tirawley  ;  to  the  left,  Tirerrill  and  Breffney ;  and  in  front, 
Corran,  Roscommon,  and  all  South  Connaught.  So  late  as  theyear 
1 536,1  we  find  the  forces  of  Hugh  O'Donnell  following  this  line 
of  march — passing  between  the  Duff  and  the  Drowes,  the  night 
of  the  day  on  which  they  had  set  out  from  Bally  shannon ; 
encamping,  the  next  night,  at  Finfir  or  Fined ;  proceeding  the 
following  day,  by  Doonierin,  to  Fearsat-Reanna-an-Liagair, 
and  crossing  the  Fearsat  to  Coolerra ;  and  after  ravaging  Coolerra 
for  three  days  and  three  nights,  "  marching  westwards  across 
the  strand  into  Tireragh  of  the  Moy."§  And  that,  in  the 
primitive  ages,  this  Fearsat  formed  the  great  passage  from 
Calrigia  or  Carly,  to  Coolerra,  we  may  learn  from  the  legend, 
according  to  which  "  this  place  was  called  Rinn-Liagain  from 


*  A.D.  1536. 

t  This  was  a  common  passage  from  Streamstown  to  Coolirra  in  the  past ;  but 
became  disused  in  consequence  of  a  man  named  O'Donoghue  having  been 
drowned  near  it,  having  missed  the  exact  spot  for  crossing.  He  was  driving  a 
cow  before  him  at  the  time. 

t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1536. 

§  Ibid. 


4G  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Liagain,  a  heroic  warrior  of  the  Fomorians,  who  was  slain  there 
as  he  was  on  his  way  to  the  battle  of  Moytura."* 

Though  it  may  be  probable,  as  it  is  apparently  in  keeping  with 
Dr.  Petrie's  views  on  the  extent  of  the  battle-field,  that  the 
Crinder  of  the  poem  is  Carrowcrin,  it  seems  much  more 
probable  that  it  is  the  "  Culleen  Grin,"  given  in  Petty's  printed 
map  of  Sligo,  and  marked  in  Down  Survey,  as  a  denomination 
of  25  acres,  1  rood,  and  18  perches,  the  property  of  Mr.  Dodwell, 
and  lying  in  that  part  of  Cloverhill,  which  contains  the  well- 
known  open  grave  with  the  inscribed  stones.  The  country 
people  tell  that  this  grave  has  never  had  any  connexion  with 
the  cromlechs,  and  that  it  is  the  burial  place  of  a  man  whom 
they  name  McGlanaghan,  and  who  lived  at  a  comparatively  recent 
date;  and,  that  this  is  so  is  clear  enough  not  only  from  an  inspection 
of  the  district  which  is  covered,  or  has  been  covered,  with 
circles  and  cromlechs  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  grave  and 
no  farther,  but  also  from  the  ornamentation  of  the  stones  round 
this  particular  grave,  no  trace  of  ornament  having  ever  been 
discovered  in  any  of  the  numerous  circles  or  cromlechs  of  Car- 
rowmore.  Indeed  the  observation  of  the  old  poem  that  "  the 
battle  spread  out  at  Crinder,"  is  so  entirely  in  accord  with  the 
state  of  the  field  even  at  present,  assuming  Crinder  to  be  Culleen 
Grin,  that  any  intelligent  person,  seeing  from  the  Seafield  road 
circles  or  remains  of  circles,  scattered  here  and  there  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Culleen  Grin,  or  Cloverhill,  but  not  beyond,  and  hearing  of 
the  bones  constantly  dug  up  in  the  spots  from  which  circles 
have  disappeared,  would  at  once  conclude  that  the  battle  raged 
mainly  in  that  direction  and  region. 

That  other  remarkable  line  of  the  poem,  "  The  Sligeach  bore 
to  the  great  sea,  the  blood  of  men  with  their  flesh,"  would,  of 
itself,  establish  the  writer's  opinion  that  the  battle  occurred  at 
the  lower  river,  for  had  the  slaughter  happened  on  the  site  of  the 
town,  as  others  suppose,  the  dead  bodies  would  have  lain  where 
they  fell  as  they  could  not  be  touched  by  the  tidal  waters, 

*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1536. 


MAP  SHEWING  FEARS  AT  OR  STRAND  PASSES 
COLOURED    BLUE. 


AN  * 

(  \    < Ttysfcr-I 

\       4**°%*** 

)  Coney  Islanci 


BA  RON  I  ES  #*^ PARISHES shn* 

i:o 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  47 

which  alone  could  carry  them  out  to  sea.  But  it  is  evident  that 
they  fell  on  the  strand,  or  in  the  fearsat  of  the  channel,  where 
part  of  the  hattle  took  place,  so  that  when  the  tide  rose  it  swept 
them  beyond  the  bar. 

For  it  must  not  be  lost  sight  of,  that  the  fearsats  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood were  the  public  passes  of  early  times,  and  often  of 
times  even  not  very  remote  from  our  own.  Before  coast  roads 
were  made  the  fearsat  from  Fined  to  Doonierin  across  the 
Drumcliffe  estuary;  the  fearsat  from  Stone- Alone- Point  to  the 
Coolirra  side  of  the  channel,  across  the  Sligo  river,  and  that 
from  Carrowcrin  to  Streamstown,  across  the  Ballysadare  river, 
formed  the  great  highway  for  large  bodies  of  men  such  as  armies, 
and  for  heavy  vehicles.  The  line  of  march  of  O'Donnell's  army 
in  1536,  shows  this  to  have  been  the  case  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  Those  who  crossed  the  Sligo  river  from  the  north  side, 
passed  down  from  Ballincar,  by  a  lane  which  still  exists,  to  the 
level  ridge  of  shore,  that  stretches  from  the  Bathing  House  to 
Stone- Alone-Point,  where  they  entered  the  fearsat  which  led 
them  to  the  Coolirra  side.  Here  there  were  three  passes  before 
them  :  one  at  Finisklin,  one  at  Gibraltar,  and  one  at  Scardan, 
and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  one  at  Gibraltar  was  the 
leading  pass,  as  the  strand  leading  to  it  was  as  firm  as  a  mac- 
adamized roadway. 

In  connexion  with  the  Sligo  fearsat,  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  the  river  was  much  shallower  in  the  past  than  it 
is  at  present,  or  has  been  recently.  Even  so  late  as  1821,  when 
Mr.  Nimmo  drew  up  his  map  of  Sligo  Port,  the  depth  of  water 
at  the  pass  of  Stone- Alone-Point  was  only  one-sixth  of  a  fathom 
or  one  foot.  It  is  well  known  to  those  who  have  examined  the 
matter  that  in  former  times  far  less  water  came  up  the  river 
from  the  sea,  and  that  far  less  came  down  the  river  from  Lough- 
gill — the  present  surface  level  of  the  lake  being  at  least  four 
feet  over  the  level  of  a  hundred  years  ago — so  that  the  channel 
must  have  been  fordable  at  several  points,  and  the  ford  at 
Stone- Alone-Point  must  have  been  so  shallow,  that  people  could 
pass  it  nearly  dryshod.  As  to  the  upper  river,  that  above  the 


48  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


bridge,  the  dam  at  the  bridge,  by  keeping  back  the  water,  has 
entirely  altered  the  appearance  as  well  as  the  depth  of  the 
stream,  so  that,  what  was  formerly  both  narrow  and  shallow  is 
now  a  broad  and  deep  river.  Even  still,  if  the  water  coming 
from  Loughgill  were  allowed  free  flow,  the  river  between  the 
distillery  and  the  Victoria  Bridge  would  be  one  of  the  shallowest 
in  the  province.  In  an  inquiry  held  by  the  Commissioners  of 
Fisheries  in  Sligo,  on  the  18th  October,  1845,  Mr.  Abraham 
Martin,  as  reported  in  the  Sligo  Journal  of  October  24, 
observed,  "  Were  I  to  leave  the  sluice  open  for  24  hours  in 
each  week  in  summer  it  would  drain  off  all  the  water." 

Coming  back  to  the  battle  of  Sligo,  it  is  easier  now  than  it 
was  before  to  understand  how  Coolirra  became  the  scene  of  the 
conflict,  the  place  lying  straight  in  the  way  of  the  hostile  armies. 
And  it  may  be  remarked,  in  passing,  that  a  more  suitable  place 
for  a  battle,  if  any  place  can  be  suited  to  deeds  of  slaughter,  it 
would  be  very  hard  to  find.  Looking  at  the  lofty  mountains 
of  Benbulben,  Castlegal,  and  Leitrim,  the  rugged  ranges  of 
Slieve  da  En  and  Slieve  Gamh,  and  the  towering  hill  of  Knock- 
narea,  set  round  in  a  seeming  circle,  one  would  be  led  to  fancy 
that  nature  herself  had  drawn  the  lists  around  the  combatants ; 
while  the  combatants  themselves,  in  seeing  those  almost  insu- 
perable obstacles  to  escape  on  all  sides,  with  the  exception  of 
one  or  two  gaps,  where  the  still  more  formidable  obstacle  of  the 
sea  barred  the  way,  could  not  help  plucking  resolution  from  the 
situation,  and  feeling  that  their  only  hope  of  safety  lay  in  valour 
and  victory.  This  feeling  must  have  contributed  much  to  the 
obstinateness  of  the  battle,  and  to  the  great  loss  of  life,  which 
we  are  warranted,  even  according  to  the  meagre  account  of  the 
Annals,  in  believing  to  have  taken  place,  but  still  more  war- 
ranted, if  we  may  connect,  as  the  writer  thinks  we  should,  the 
numerous  circles  and  cromlechs  of  the  district  with  this  par- 
ticular engagement.  All  seem  now  agreed  in  repudiating  the 
opinion  which  held  them  to  be  Druids'  Altars,  and  in  regarding 
them  as  sepulchral  monuments,  raised  over  men  who  had  fallen 
in  some  great  battle. 


MAP  SHEWING    STONE  CIRCLES 


PARISHES  tftu  v TO tt 'NLA  NDS    thus 

Scal&.l+fnch  to  On<>  Milt  . 


HISTORY    OF   SLIGO. 


49 


These  structures  were  all  on  the  same  plan — a  circle  and,  in 
a  few  instances,  two  or  three  concentric  circles — of  large  stones, 
the  diameter  of  the  inclosure  being  generally  about  forty  feet, 
but  sometimes  more,  and  the  stones  varying  in  size  from  one  foot 


to  four  or  five  feet  high. 


STONE    CIECLE  AND   CROMLECH   AT   CARROWMORE,    NEAR   SLIGO.* 

Thirty  or  forty  of  these,  on  an  average,  were  set,  at  regular 
intervals,  generally  within  a  foot  or  two  of  each  other,  round  a 
centre,  so  that  they  formed  so  many  points  of  the  circumference. 
As  cromlechs,  or  the  remains  of  cromlechs,  are  found  as  centres 
in  the  circles  which  survive,  we  may  conclude  that  originally 
they  formed  the  centres  of  all  the  circles,  which,  according  to 
Mr.  Petrie,  must  have  been  at  one  time  more  than  two  hundred, 


*  Drawn  from  a  sketch  by  Petrie,  for  the  Very  Rev.  Doctor  O'Eorke,  P.P., 
by  W.  F.  Wakeman,  August  2nd,  1888. 

VOL.  I.  D 


50  HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


and  were  at  the  date  of  his  visit*  sixty-four,  though  now  reduced 
to  less  than  a  fourth  of  that  number.  Mr.  Petrie  regarded  it 
as  probable  that  the  circles  "  had  been  carried  on  originally  from 
one  extremity  of  the  peninsula  to  the  other,"  that  is,  from  the 
estuary  of  Ballysadare  to  that  of  Sligo ;  and,  in  searching  for 
evidence  of  this  opinion,  he  found  remains  of  some  of  those 
monuments  to  the  north,  in  the  townland  of  Barnesrahy,  though 
he  failed  to  make  any  similar  discovery  to  the  south.f  Con- 
sidering, however,  the  many  centuries  that  have  elapsed  since 
the  original  erection  of  these  structures,  at  &  time  when  there 
was  hardly  a  single  stone  fence  or  house  in  the  entire  peninsula ; 
and  considering  that  the  district  is  now  intersected  in  all 
directions  with  such  fences  and  covered  with  such  houses,  the 
absence  of  the  circles,  or  even  of  their  recognizable  remains,  is 
no  disproof  of  their  past  existence,  as  the  materials  must  have 
been  used  in  building  houses  and  field  walls.  But  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  prolongation  of  the  line  of  circles  towards 
the  north  and  south,  it  would  appear  to  be  pretty  certain  that  a 
second  line,  starting  at  right  angles  from  the  first,  and  stretching 
in  a  westerly  direction,  extended  all  the  way  to  Misgan  Meave, 
on  the  top  of  Knocknarea.  This  was  the  opinion  of  Petrie  as 
also  of  the  late  Mr.  Walker,  whose  acquaintance  with  the  district 
was  more  minute  and  accurate  than  that  even  of  Petrie ;  and 
anyone  who  to-day  ascends  Misgan  Meave,  and  looks  in  the 


*  In  a  letter  of  Mr.  Petrie  to  Sir  Thomas  Larcom,  we  read,  "  I  merely  write 
you  a  line  to  say  that,  after  yesterday's  investigation  of  the  sepulchral  circles 
at  Carrowmore,  I  am  far  from  done,  though  I  brought  up  my  notes  to  forty 
circles.  I  now  verily  believe  there  could  not  originally  have  been  less  than 
two  hundred."— Life  of  George  Petrie,  LL.D.,  by  "William  Stokes,  M.D., 
D.C.L.,  Oxon,  p.  242.  In  the  detailed  list  of  the  circles,  given  by  Dr.  Stokes, 
from  Petrie's  manuscript,  the  number  is  brought  up  to  64.— Life  of  George 
Petrie,  &c.,  pp.  242-254. 

t  "  It  occurred  to  me  as  probable  that  a  careful  examination  of  the  townlands, 
lying  to  the  north  and  south,  might  furnish  evidences  that  the  series  had  been 
carried  on  originally  from  one  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of  Cuil  Irra  to  the 
other  ;  and  though  my  anticipations  were  not  realized  towards  the  south,  the 
investigation  was  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  several  monuments  to  the  north, 
as  in  the  townland  of  Barnesrahy,  &c." — Ibid.,  p.  252. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  51 


direction  indicated,  will  see  enough,  in  the  clusters  of  large  stones 
under  view,  to  convince  him  of  the  soundness  of  that  opinion. 

The  condition  of  things  then,  in  Carrowmore  and  the  neigh- 
bouring townlands,  is  just  what  one  should  expect,  supposing 
the  place  to  have  been  the  scene  of  the  battle  of  Sligo,  and 
supposing  the  history  of  the  battle,  as  given  in  the  old  Life  of 
St.  Ceallach,  to  be  the  true  one. 

There  are  two  accounts  then  of  this  engagement,  which  may 
be  designated,  respectively,  the  account  of  Ulster  and  the 
account  of  Connaught ;  the  former,  that  given  in  the  Annals, 
and  the  latter,  that  contained  in  the  Life  of  Saint  Ceallach. 
According  to  the  version  of  the  Annals  the  conflict  would 
have  been  "  short,  sharp,  and  decisive,"  resulting  in  a  complete 
victory  for  the  Ulstermen,  who  returned  home  bringing  with 
them  the  trophies  of  the  conquered,  and,  among  those  trophies, 
the  head  of  Eoghan  Bel.  But  according  to  the  Connaught 
story,  the  Connaughtmen,  even  though  their  king  was  mortally 
wounded,  were  the  victors,  as  they  encamped  after  the  battle  on 
the  field,  and  continued  there  several  days. 

During  these  days  the  dying  King  gave  orders  about  his 
interment,  directing  that  he  should  be  buried  in  Rath  OTiach- 
rach,  in  a  standing  posture,  and  with  his  red  javelin  in  his  hand. 
Though  this  rath  has  not  been  identified,  it  cannot  be  any  other 
than  that  on  which  the  so-called  Misgan  Meave  now  stands  on 
the  summit  of  Knocknarea,  the  whole  of  this  part  of  the  present 
barony  of  Carbury  belonging,  in  the  olden  time,  to  the  O'Fiach- 
rachs,  as  part  of  Tireragh.*  This  position  would  correspond 
exactly  with  that  described  in  Saint  Ceallach's  life,f  as  being 

*  Tireragh  extended  formerly  from  the  river  Robe  to  the  river  Codhnach  of 
Drumcliffe ; 

"  From  the  Rodha  of  prosperous  course, 
To  the  Codhnach  of  winding  current." — Tribes  and  Customs  of 

Hy-Fiachrach,  p.  279. 

t  The  following  account  of  the  burial  of  Eoghan  Bel  is  taken  from  the  Irish 
Life  of  Saint  Ceallach.  The  translation  is  by  O'Donovan  :— 

"  Eoghan  also  told  them  to  bury  himself  with  his  red  javelin  in  his  hand  in 
the  grave.  Place  my  face  towards  the  north,  on  the  side  of  the  hill  by  which 
the  northerns  pass  when  flying  before  the  army  of  Connaught ;  let  my  grave 


52  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


"on  that  side"  of  the  "hill,"  which  overlooks  the  route  from 
Connaught  to  the  north  ;  that  route  corresponding  closely  with 
the  present  Seafield  road  to  Sligo,  and  passing  from  Carrowcrin, 
or  Kellys-town,  through  Carrowmore,  on  to  Barnesrahy.  And 
some  aid  to  this  conjecture  may  be  derived  from  the  word  "  hill/* 
which  could  hardly  apply  to  any  other  spot  in  the  peninsula, 
Knocknarea  being  the  only  hill  in  it. 

Additional  confirmation  of  the  writer's  view  may  be  drawn 
from  the  usual  acceptation  of  the  word  Knocknarea,  by  the 
people  living  in  the  neighbourhood ;  for  though  eminent  anti- 
quaries and  Irish  scholars  take  Knocknarea  to  mean  either  the 
Hill  of  the  Moon,  or  the  Hill  of  Executions,  the  people  in  and 
near  Coolerra  generally  understand,  by  the  name,  the  Hill  of  the 
King — no  doubt  King  Eoghan  Bel,  no  other  being  in  any  way 
associated  with  it,  and,  in  particular,  not  Eochy,  King  of  the 
Firbolgs,  as  he,  according  to  all  our  authorities,  was  slain  on 

face  them,  and  place  myself  in  it,  after  this  manner.  And  this  order  was 
strictly  complied  with  ;  and  in  every  place  where  the  Clanna  Neill  and  the 
Connacians  met  in  conflict,  the  Clanna  Neill  and  the  northerns  were  routed, 
being  panic-stricken  by  the  countenances  of  their  foes,  so  that  the  Clanna  Neill 
and  the  people  of  the  North  of  Ireland  therefore  resolved  to  come  with  a 
numerous  host  to  Rath  O'Fiachrach,  and  raise  the  body  of  Eoghan  from  the 
grave,  and  carry  his  remains  northwards  across  the  Sligo.  This  was  done,  and 
the  body  was  buried  at  the  other  side  of  the  river  at  Aenach  Locha  Gile,  with 
the  mouth  down,  that  it  might  not  be  the  means  of  causing  them  to  fly  before 
the  Connacians." — Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy-Fiachrach,  p.  472. 

King  Laery  was  buried  in  a  similar  position,  and  with  similar  surroundings. 
"VYe  read  in  Aubrey  de  Vere's  Inisfail: — 

"  They  buried  the  King  upon  Tara's  Hill, 

In  his  grave  upright,  there  stands  he  still. 

"Upright  there  stands  he,  as  men  that  wade 

By  night  through  a  castle,  undismay'd  ; 

On  his  head  is  the  gold  crown,  the  spear  in  his  hand, 

And  he  looks  to  the  hated  Lagenian  band." 

And  Eoghan  Bel's  thoughts,  like  Laery 's,  were  warlike  and  vengeful ; 
"  But  we  are  as  men,  through  dark  floods  that  wade  ; 

We  stand  in  our  black  graves  undismay'd  ; 

Our  faces  are  turn'd  to  the  race  abhorr'd, 

And  ready  beside  us  stand  spear  and  sword, 

Ready  to  strike  at  the  last  great  day, 

Ready  to  trample  them  back  into  clay."— Inisfail. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  53 


the  strand  of  Beltra,  and  there  buried  under  the  famous  cairn, 
formerly  counted  among  the  wonders  of  Ireland. 

But  it  is  right  to  state,  before  proceeding  further,  that  the 
writer  cannot  accept  any  of  the  three  foregoing  explanations  of 
the  word  Knocknarea,  certain,  though  their  respective  authors 
profess  to  be  about  them.  The  Venerable  Charles  O'Conor, 
takes  it  to  be  a  mere  matter  of  course  that  the  name, 
Knocknarea,  means  Hill  of  the  Moon  ;*  O'Donovan,  while 
blaming  O'Conor  for  this  opinion,  and  expressing  surprise  "  that 
so  acute  a  critic  should  commit  such  a  blunder,"  affirms  positively 
that  it  signifies  Hill  of  the  Executions  ;f  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Coolerra  are  equally  convinced  that  it  is  Hill  of  the  King. 
While  the  opinions  of  O'Conor  and  O'Donovan  have  little  in 
their  favour  except  the  ipse  dixits  of  those  distinguished  men — 
which,  of  course,  is  no  inconsiderable  support — it  is  easy  to 
understand  how  the  local  view  originated.  Finding  a  tradition 
in  the  neighbourhood  that  a  king  was  buried  in  Misgan  Meave, 
and  knowing  the  Irish  word  "  righ  " — sometimes  appearing  in 
English  under  the  form  "  rea  " — to  signify  a  king,  the  people 
with  a  precipitancy,  not  unusual  in  such  circumstances,  jumped 
to  the  conclusion  that  Knocknarea  was  in  name,  as  well  as  in 
fact,  the  Hill  of  the  King. 

The  true  etymology,  however,  will,  no  doubt,  be  found  by 
following  a  clue  supplied  in  the  Life  of  Saint  Cormac,  as  given 
in  Colgan's  Acta  Sanctorum,  at  the  26th  of  March.  It  is  there 
expressly  stated  that  Rosredheadh  was  the  ancient  name  of  the 
Knocknarea  district ;  and  as  Rosredheadh,  or  its  equivalent 
Ros  na  Reidh,  means  the  promontory  of  the  smooth,  level, 
mountain  top,  it  seems  to  follow  that  Knocknarea — otherwise 


*  '?  By-the-by,  Knock  na  Rea  signifies  literally  the  Mountain  of  the  MOOD, 
very  probably  from  the  ancients  celebrating  their  Neomenia  on  that  hill." 

t  Letter  written  from  Sligo  on  July  the  2nd,  1836,  and  given  in  the  Ordnance 
Survey  Letter  Book  of  the  County  Sligo.  In  this  communication,  he  writes 
Knocknarea  as  Cnoc  na  riagh,  and  affirms  that  it  is  always  so  spelled  in  old 
documents.  Ha  states  too,  that  a  legend  in  the  Dinnseanchus  proves  the 
correctness  of  this  spelling.  He  does  not  give  the  legend. 


54 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Knoc  na  Eeidh—is  the  Hill  of  the  smooth,  level  top,  a  desig- 
nation which  describes  perfectly  the  peculiar  outlines  and 
character  of  the  hill.* 


KNCCKNAREA,    CO.   SLIGO.  t 

The  smooth  and  level  contour  of  Knocknarea  comes  out 
strikingly  when  the  hill  is  contrasted  with  the  surrounding 
mountains.  If  the  traveller  by  the  coach  road  from  JBallysadare 
to  Sligo  look  around  him  on  reaching  the  top  of  the  long  bray 
at  Tawnafortis,  and  after  observing,  to  the  south-east,  Slieve 

*  "Reidh  (ray)  is  usually  applied  to  a  mountain  flat,  or  a  coarse,  moory,  level 
piece  of  land  among  hills. "--Irish  Names  of  Places,  first  series,  p.  387.  The 
learned  and  accurate  author  adds,  "  There  is  a  well-known  mountain  over  the 
Killeries  in  Connemara,  called  Muilrea,  and  this  name  characterizes  its  outline 
compared  with  that  of  the  surrounding  hills,  when  seen  from  a  moderate 
distance ;  Mael-reidh,  smooth  flat  mountain."  This  very  apposite  example 
would  suffice  itself  to  fix  the  genuine  import  of  Knocknarea. 

t  Drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr.  Wakeman,  from  a  sketch  by  Miss  O'Connor 
of  Bally  glass. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  55 


da  Eu — a  maze  of  knobs,  bosses,  and  ravines; — to  the  south- 
west, the  Ox  Mountains,  looking  from  this  point  exactly  like 
the  petrified  breakers  of  a  raging  sea;  and  to  the  north,  Castle- 
gal  range  with  its  breaks,  its  geological  faults,  and  rugged  crest ; 
and  then  turn  the  eye  to  Knocknarea,  rounded  off  and  smoothed 
as  if  by  machinery,  he  cannot  fail  to  be  forcibly  struck  by  the 
singular  appropriateness  of  the  name,  Smooth  Hill,  given  by 
our  ancestors  to  this  elevation.  In  this  jespect  they  are  in  full 
agreement  with  Mr.  Frazer,  who  in  his  Handbook  for  Ireland 
hits  off  so  felicitously  the  physical  features  and  scenery  of  the 
country  ;  for  he  describes  Knocknarea  as  "  a  singularly  formed, 
solitary,  flat-topped,  verdant  hill,  crowned  with  a  large  sepulchral 
tumulus."  "  Flat  topped  hill "  is  not  a  bad  English  equivalent 
for  Knocknarea,  that  is,  Cnoc-na-reidh.  It  is  really  strange  that 
eminent  Irish,  scholars,  like  Charles  O'Conor  and  John 
O'Donovan,  did  not  think  of  this  natural  and  obvious  explanation 
instead  of  excogitating  arbitrarily  their  far-fetched  "  Neomenia  " 
and  "  Execution  "  theories.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  as  it  has 
an  important  bearing  on  the  age  and  character  of  the  Carrow- 
more  antiquities,  that  the  flat  top  of  Knocknarea  comprises  a 
considerable  area — apparently  several  hundred  acres — and  that 
the  cairn  or  Misgan  stands  on  the  eastern,  that  is,  the  Sligo  edge 
or  side,  while  the  plain  itself  stretches  faraway  to  the  west — 
thus  verifying  to  the  letter  those  words  of  the  Life  of  St. 
Celleach — "  on  the  side  of  the  hill  by  which  the  northerns  pass 
when  flying  before  the  army  of  Connaught." 

If  any  confirmation  of  the  writer's  opinion  as  to  the  etymology 
of  Knocknarea  were  needed,  it  would  be  found  in  the  popular 
pronunciation  of  the  last  syllable  of  the  name,  which,  however 
affected  speakers  may  sound  it,  is  always  pronounced  by  the 
people  like  the  English  word  "  ray  " — the  exact  sound  of  reidh 
according  to  Dr.  Joyce,  who  writes,  in  his  Irish  Names  of  Places 
(First  Series,  p.  387),  "Reidh  (ray)  is  usually  applied  to  a 
mountain  flat  or  a  coarse,  moory,  level  piece  of  land  among  hills." 
The  sound  comes  out  well  in  a  street  ballad  on  "  Sligo  Town," 
composed  by  a  Sligo  man  in  New  York,  sung  through  the 


5G  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


different  cities  and  towns  of  the  United  States,  and  purchased 
on  the  Niagara  Suspension  Bridge,  from  the  ballad  singer  by 
Professor  Judge  of  Maynooth  College.  Take  the  following 
stanza  or  two  : — 

"  I  love  old  Ireland  all  around,  the  north,  south,  east  and  west, 
But  who  can  blame  me  if  I  love  that  dear  old  town  the  best  ? 
'Twas  there  that  first  my  infant  eyes  beheld  the  light  of  day, 
Near  Sligo  town  that  lies  so  snug  at  the  foot  of  Knocknarea. 
i  •  •  t  •  i  •  •  • 

I  love  my  dear  adopted  land,  I  love  it  as  my  life, 
I  love  it  dearly  as  I  love  my  children  and  my  wife  ; 
But  who  can  blame  me  if  I  love  old  Ireland  far  away, 
And  Sligo  town  that  lies  so  snug  at  the  foot  of  Knocknarea  ? " 

This  pronunciation  alone  would  upset  the  analogy  which 
O'Donovan  tries  to  establish  between  Adnarea  and  Knocknarea, 
as  the  last  syllable  of  the  former  word  is  invariably  pronounced 
throughout  the  counties  of  Mayo  and  Sligo,  as  if  written  ree.  It 
is  hoped  then  that  this  explanation  of  the  name  of  Knocknarea, 
though  put  forth  now  for  the  first  time,  will  be  recognised  as 
the  true  one  ;  and  it  must  be  the  more  acceptable,  as  it  takes 
away,  from  the  most  beautiful  hill  in  the  province,  the  reproach 
of  having  once  been  a  vile  place  of  executions,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  it  keeps  us  all  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  moon, 
with  which  archaBologists  and  antiquaries  are  sometimes  in 
closer  proximity  than  is  desirable.  Had  Charles  O'Conor  and 
John  O'Donovan  fallen  in  with  the  rosredheadli  of  St.  Cormac's 
Life,  they  would,  pretty  certainly,  have  been  saved  from  their 
respective  mistakes. 

Everything  then  makes  for  the  writer's  view  of  the  battle  of 
Sligo : — first,  the  situation  of  the  Carrowmore  monuments, 
lying,  as  they  do,  just  between  the  Sligo  river  and  Carrowcrin, 
the  exact  position  indicated  in  the  lines  quoted  by  the  Four 
Masters ;— second,  the  fact  that  the  cromlechs  stand  on,  or 
along,  the  highway  which  led,  in  primitive  and  early  times,  from 
the  estuary  of  Ballysadare  to  the  estuary  of  Sligo  ; — third,  the 
cairn  on  Knocknarea,  which  is  taken  byPetrie  to  be  the  burying 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  57 


place  of  the  chief  or  leader  of  the  warriors  in  whose  honour  the 
cromlechs  were  raised,  and  which,  standing,  as  it  does,  on  the 
Sligo  side  of  the  hill,  corresponds  precisely  with  the  description, 
in  the  Life  of  St.  Ceallach,  of  Eoghan  Bel's  grave,  "  placed  on 
the  side  of  the  hill  by  which  the  northerns  pass  when  flying 
from  the  armies  of  Connaught;" — fourth,  the  antecedent 
probability  that  the  Connaught  army,  after  honouring  their 
leader  and  king,  by  raising  the  great  cairn  over  his  remains, 
would  discharge  a  similar  duty  towards  their  subordinate  leaders 
and  comrades,  a  duty  so  easily  performed,  owing  to  the  blocks 
of  Ox  Mountain  stone  which  then  strewed  the  spot,  as  they  still 
strew  various  other  stretches  in  the  neighbourhood ;  and, lastly,  the 
stay  of  several  days  made  by  the  troops  on  the  battle-field,  during 
which  time  there  was  hardly  anything  else  to  occupy  them  or 
detain  them  except  the  erection  of  those  monuments. 

The  solution  now  offered  of  the  puzzle,  presented  by  the 
Carrowmore  circles  and  cromlechs,  is  so  natural  as  to  make  it  a 
matter  of  surprise,  that  it  did  not  occur  to  somebody  earlier. 
The  chief  cause  of  this,  no  doubt,  was  the  phrase,  the  "  Battle  of 
Sligo,"  which  people,  with  modern  associations  in  the  head,  took 
to  mean  the  battle  of  the  town  of  Sligo,  instead  of  the  battle  of 
the  river  of  Sligo,  which  the  words  certainly  signify.  If  men 
remembered  this,  and  reflected  at  the  same  time  that  the  stream 
below  the  bridge  is  rightly  called  the  River  of  Sligo,  and  was 
exclusively  so  called  in  the  past,  they  would  have  identified  long 
before  this  the  scene  of  the  famous  battle,  which  cost  Eoghan  Bel 
his  life. 

There  may,  perhaps,  be  found  some  who  will  not  still  admit 
that  the  arguments  just  adduced  establish  conclusively  the  con- 
nexion of  the  Carrowmore  monuments  with  the  Battle  of  Sligo, 
but  no  one  who  considers  attentively  and  impartially  what  has 
been  said,  can  deny  that  the  connexion  has  got  probability,  if 
not  absolute  certainty,  in  its  favour,  unlike,  in  this  respect,  to 
the  Firbolg  and  Tuatha  de  Danaan  theory,  for  which  nothing 
intelligible  is  alleged,  which  is  unsupported  by  a  shred  of 
historical  writing,  or  a  syllable  of  respectable  tradition,  and 


58  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


which  at  bottom  is  only  a  wild  guess  at  the  origin  of  those 
hitherto  mysterious  structures,  either  by  sciolists,  whose 
opinions  are  worthless,  or  by  persons  who,  however  eminent  in 
other  respects,  lacked  the  local  knowledge  which  might  lead 
them  to  the  true  solution  of  the  problem. 

Assuming  then  the  connexion,  a  point  of  great  importance  to 
the  archaeologist  is  gained  by  his  learning  the  exact  age  of  those 
monuments.  Sir  James  Ferguson,  in  his  E-ude  Stone  Monuments, 
rejecting  the  ideas  of  the  Four  Masters,  who  date  the  monuments 
of  Cong  or  the  southern  Moytura,  and  of  Carrowmore,  which 
Sir  James  supposed  to  be  the  northern  Moytura,  to  the  respective 
years  of  1896  and  1869,  B.C.,  refers  them  to  the  Christian  era, 
and  shows,  in  several  passages,  a  desire  to  bring  them  as  far 
down  in  that  era  as  he  can.  "  I  should,"  he  says  in  one  place, 
page  197,  "from  their  internal  evidence,  be  much  more  inclined 
to  assume  that  the  battles  must  have  taken  place  one  or  two 
centuries  after  the  birth  of  Christ,"  and,  not  satisfied  with  an 
origin  so  early,  though  two  thousand  years  later  than  that 
assigned  by  the  Four  Masters,  he  observes  on  the  next  page, 
"  But  after  the  most  earnest  attention  I  have  been  able  to  give 
to  all  that  has  been  written  and  said  on  the  subject,  and  a 
careful  comparison  of  the  monuments  on  these  fields  with  those 
of  other  countries,  I  would,  on  the  whole,  be  inclined  to  bring 
them  forward  a  century  or  two,  if  I  could  find  a  gap  to  throw 
them  into,  rather  than  date  them  earlier.  They  look  older  and 
more  tentative  than  the  English  circles  described  in  the  last 
chapter,  but  not  so  much  as  to  lead  us  to  expect  a  difference  of 
four  or  five  centuries.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  so  like  those 
on  the  Bravalla  field,  and  other  monuments  in  Scandinavia,  to 
be  described  hereafter,  that  it  is  puzzling  to  think  that 
seven  or  ten  centuries  elapsed  between  them." 

If  Sir  James  Ferguson  lived  now,  and  learned  that  the  "gap," 
he  was  so  anxious  to  find,  was  discovered,  and  that,  according  to 
the  discovery,  the  Carrowmore  circles  would  date  from  the  sixth 
century,  it  is  certain  from  everything  he  has  written,  that  he 
would  endorse  heartily  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  and  hold  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  59 


solution,  now  offered,  to  satisfy  perfectly  all  the  conditions  of  the 
problem. 

Before  passing  on,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  construction, 
called  Hath  O'Fiachrach  in  Saint  Ceallach's  life,  is  plainly  iden- 
tical with  that  named  Rath  Righbaird  in  the  Four  Masters,  and 
Fossa  Riabairt  in  the  Book  of  Armagh,  near  which  St.  Patrick  is 
said  to  have  founded  the  church  of  Killaspugbrone  ;  the  situation 
assigned  to  each  being  precisely  the  same. 

Just  one  word  regarding  objections  which,  on  examining  this 
new  view  of  the  Battle  of  Sligo,  may  rise  in  the  minds  of  some. 
The  absence  of  bronze  and  iron  implements,  or  arms,  from  finds 
in  the  battle-field ;  the  marks  of  fire  on  objects  connected  with 
the  cromlechs;  and  the  bones  of  mammalia  and  small  rodents, 
as  well  as  the  shells  of  shell-fish,  met  with  in  excavations  of 
Carrowmore,  seem  to  some  persons  to  militate  against  the  modern 
date  of  the  engagement.  But  there  is  really  nothing  in  these 
objections.  As  to  the  absence  of  bronze  and  iron  objects,  it  is 
rather  late  in  the  day  to  found  an  argument  on  this  fact,  or 
alleged  fact;  for  even  if  we  suppose  the  field  to  have  been  strewn 
with  such  objects,  there  was  time  and  occasion  enough  to  pick 
them  up  in  the  thirteen  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
conflict  took  place — more  especially  as  they  would  lie  on  the 
chief  highway  of  the  county,  and  under  the  eyes  of  the  passers 
by.  The  objection  too  would  carry  its  authors  further  than  they 
might  wish,  for  it  would  lead  them  to  deny  the  well  authenti- 
cated date  of  the  battle  of  Cuil-dreimhne  (Cooldroman),  as  no 
one  has  heard  of  iron  or  bronze  objects  having  been  found  on 
that  spot.  And  the  "  three  days,"  or  "  week,"  or  longer  time, 
the  troops  of  Eoghan  Bel  remained  on  the  field  gave  them  plenty 
of  opportunity  to  recover  dropped  arms  in  case  such  were  lying 
about.  Besides,  the  absence  of  bronze  or  iron  is  assumed 
without  warrant,  and  even  against  evidence  ;  for  Dr.  Petrie,  in 
his  lucid  description  of  the  Carrowmore  circles  and  cromlechs, 
observes,  in  paragraph  63,  "  Within  the  central  enclosure,  as 
stated  by  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood,  a  bronze  sword  was 
found  about  forty  years  ago."  One  swallow,  it  is  true,  does  not 


60  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


make  a  summer,  but  when  we  see  one,  we  can  hardly  be  wrong 
in  thinking  that  others  are  hardly  far  off,  so  that  this  bronze 
sword  suggests  the  presence  of  others. 

The  "  marks  of  fire  "  are  just  as  inconclusive.  When  we 
recollect  that  the  victors  encamped  for  several  days  on  the  battle- 
field, and  that  during  those  days  they  had  their  camp  fires  for 
cooking  and  heating  purposes  in  all  directions,  we  have,  in  the 
fact,  explanation  enough  of  all  the  fire  marks  that  appear. 

Nor  do  the  bones  of  the  mammalia,  we  hear  of,  tell  in  any 
way  against  the  new  view.  They  make  for  it  rather;  for 
the  Four  Masters,  and  other  annalists,  expressly  tell  us  that  there 
were  kine  on  the-battle  field  ;  and  as  to  the  bones  of  rodents 
and  to  shells,  they  are  merely  the  remains  of  the  rabbits  and 
oysters  on  which  the  Connaughtmen  regaled  themselves  during 
their  stay  in  Coolerra,  where  both  rabbits  and  oysters  have 
always  existed  in  great  plenty.  From  the  line — 

"The  kine  of  the  enemy  roared  with  the  javelins," 

we  learn  the  curious  fact  that  the  stratagem  of  the  insurgents 
of  1798,  of  driving  cattle  before  them  at  the  battle  of  New  Ross, 
to  receive  the  first  onset  of  the  battle,  was  made  use  of,  thirteen 
hundred  years  earlier,  by  the  Connaughtmen  in  the  battle  of 
Sligo.  Efforts  have  been  recently  made  to  show^that  cremation 
was  practised  at  the  interments  of  Carrowmore,  but  there  is  no 
proof  whatever  of  that  contention.  In  Dr.  Petrie's  sober  and 
masterly  analysis  of  the  monuments  and  their  contents,  he 
never  thought  of  cremation,  in  connexion  with  the  human 
remains,  though  he  mentions  such  finds  fourteen  times,*  but 


*  For  a  quietus  of  this  foolish  cremation  theory  it  may  be  well  to  quote  in 
•detail  the  words  of  Dr.  Petrie  : — 

Paragraph  1.  "  Bones  were  found  beneath  the  cromleac." 

',,          2.   "  Human  bones  have  also  been  discovered  within  this  circle." 
,,          3.  "  Mr.  Walker  had  this  cromleac  searched,  and  found  an  inter- 
ment within  it." 

,,        10.  "  An  interment  was  found  within  the  cromleac." 
,,        15.  "Human  bones   were  found    within  the  cromleac    by  Mr. 
Walker." 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


61 


always  without  the  slightest  hint  of  a  belief  that  they  had  been 
burned  or,  as  the  phrase  is,  cremated.  "  Human  bones  have 
been  discovered  within  this  circle  ;"  "  human  bones  were  found 
within  this  circle  by  Mr.  Walker;"  "  as  usual  human  bones  were 
found  within  this  tomb  ;"  "in  all  these  circles  bones  were  found 
beneath  the  cromleacs ;" — such  are  the  phrases  he  always 
employs  when  recording  finds  of  the  bones  of  men.  It  is  very 
different,  however,  when  there  is  question  of  the  remains  of 
animals ;  as,  for  instance,  in  paragraph  51,  where  he  writes  : 
"  The  half-calcined  bones  of  horses  and  other  animals  were,  and 
are  still,  found  in  the  cairn  in  great  quantity."  And  in  the 
same  context  he  says :  "  The  persons  who  first  opened  this 
monument  assert  that  they  found  nothing  within  it  but  burnt 
wood  and  human  bones,"  where  certainly,  had  these  bones  been 
subjected  to  fire,  he  would  have  noted  the  circumstance,  as  he 
notes  it  in  regard  to  the  wood.  So  far,  then,  from  the  remains 
of  the  battle,  as  they  exist  or  have  existed,  being  an  objection, 
they  supply  additional  proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  opinion, 
which  is  now  respectfully  but  confidently  submitted  to  the 
judgment  of  antiquaries,  historians,  and  the  general  public. 


Paragraph  17.  "  Within  the  enclosure  Mr.  Walker  found  human  bones  and 

the  fragm  ents  of  an  urn." 
,,          22.  "  Within  the  cromleac  an    interment  was  found  by  Mr. 

Walker." 

23.   "  Human  bones  found  within  the  cromleac." 
29.   "  As  usual,  human  bones  were  found  within  this  tomb." 
31.  "  Human  bones  were  found  within  this  cromleac." 
40.  "  As  usual,  human  bones  were  found  in  the  tombs." 
46.  "  In  all  these  circles  bones  were  found  beneath  the  cromleacs." 
51.   "The  persons   who  first  opened  this,  the  most  important 
monument  of  the  entire  series,   assert  that  they  found 
nothing  within  it  but  burnt  wood  and  human  bones.    The 
half-calcined  bones  of  horses  and  other  animals  were,  and 
are  still,  found  in  the  cairn  in  great  quantity." 
63.  "  Human  bones  have  been  found  within  the  central  enclosure, 
and,  as  stated  by  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood,  a  bronze 
sword  was  found  about  forty  years  ago." — Life  of  George 
Petrie.     By  William  Stokes,  M.D.,  D.C.L.,  Oxon.,  &c., 
pages  243-4-5-6-7-8-9, 


62  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


From  the  absence,  in  the  foregoing  remarks,  of  all  reference 
to  Ptolemy's  so  called  "  eminent  city  " — episemos  polls — of 
Nagnata,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  writer  has  no  faith  in  the 
alleged  identity  of  that  mysterious  city  with  the  town  of  Sligo. 
Indeed  he  does  not  see  that  anything  tangible  can  be  quoted  in 
favour  of  the  allegation,  except,  perhaps,  Ptolemy's  mention  of 
such  a  place  as  lying  somewhere  in  Connaught,  which,  con- 
sidering that  geographer's  inacquaintance  with  this  country, 
does  not  amount  to  much.  "  It  is  well  to  know,"  says  the  Rev. 
Dr.  O'Conor,  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Refum  Hibernicarum 
Scriptores  (p.  xliv.),  "  that  the  geography  of  Ptolemy  is  full  of 
errors,  especially  in  regard  to  northern  Britain,  which  he  makes 
to  run  towards  the  east,  whereas  it  actually  runs  towards  the 
north ;  and  if  he  cannot  be  relied  on  with  regard  to  Britain, 
for  which,  as  a  Roman  province,  good  sources  of  information 
were  open  to  him,  he  must  be  much  more  untrustworthy  in 
respect  to  Ireland,  on  which  the  conquering  Romans  had  never 
set  foot.  "When  Tacitus,  who  had  peculiar  opportunities  of 
acquiring  correct  notions  of  Ireland,  while  writing  the  life  of 
Agricola,  blunders  so  egregiously  as  to  place  the  island  midway 
between  Spain  and  Britain — medio  inter  Brittaniam  et  His- 
paniam — it  is  clear  that  the  map  of  Ptolemy,  who  lived  much 
about  the  same  time,  should  be  received  with  great  caution  and 
under  correction.  And  unless  the  learned  biographer  of 
Agricola  was  as  deceived  in  regard  to  the  other  circumstances 
of  the  country  as  he  was  about  its  geographical  position,  his 
evidence  would  go  far  to  disprove  the  existence  in  it  of  great 
cities,  for  he  tells  us  he  had  heard  that  a  single  legion  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  subdue  the  whole  island,  which  would 
show  that  the  population  was  both  small  and  sparse." 

But  granting  even  that  this  episemos  polis  rose  somewhere 
on  the  Connaught  coast,  there  is  no  ground  for  placing  it  on 
the  site  of  Sligo.  Of  those  who,  assuming  it  had  a  real  being, 
try  to  fix  its  situation,  some  would  set  it  at  DrumclifT;  Dr. 
O'Conor,  near  Sligo  (prope  Sligoam) ;  Sir  James  Ware,  "  not 
far  from  Sligo;"  Mr.  Harris,  in  the  village  of  Mayo,  in  the 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  63 


county  of  that  name ;  Baxter  and  Hardiman,  at  the  town  of 
Galway;  and  the  present  writer,  for  reasons  given  in  his  Bally- 
sadare  and  Kilvarnet,  at  Ballysadare.  When,  then,  there  is 
so  much  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  whole  subject;  when 
this  "  eminent  city  "  may  be  a  mere  invention  of  some  lying  or 
imaginative  traveller,  who  served  as  Ptolemy's  informant,  it 
would  be  rash  to  accept  its  existence  on  such  doubtful  evidence, 
but  still  more  rash  and  unreasonable,  in  the  absence  of  the 
slightest  trace  or  tradition  of  it  in  the  neighbourhood,  to  locate 
it  at  Sligo — the  most  unlikely,  of  a  hundred  sites,  lying  between 
Bunduff  and  Galway ;  for  any  of  the  successive  colonies,  which 
inhabited  the  country  in  the  remote  past,  would  sooner  perch 
a  town  on  the  summit  of  Benbulben,  or  range  it  round  the 
cairn  on  Knocknarea,  than  sink  it  in  the  deep  hollow  in  which 
the  town  of  Sligo  lies.  It  would  be  mere  waste  of  time  then, 
in  an  historical  inquiry,  to  bestow  serious  thought  on  this 
shadowy  city  of  Nagnata. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   FITZGERALDS  AND  SLIGO. 

BETWEEN  the  date  of  the  battle,  we  have  been  considering,  and 
the  twelfth  century  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  the  existence  of 
a  town  in  Sligo,  the  name  not  being  once  mentioned  in  the 
annals  of  the  country  during  all  that  time.  Nor  is  it  found  in 
St.  Bernard's  Life  of  St.  Malachy,  though  that  interesting 
biography  contains  the  names  of  all  the  places  of  note  in  Ireland, 
towards  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  time  at  which 
the  piece  was  composed.  We  miss  it  in  like  manner  from. 
Giraldus  Cambrensis'  Topography  of  Ireland,  which,  being 
written  professedly  and  by  order  of  the  English  King,  as  a  de- 
scription of  Ireland,  at  the  period  of  the  Anglo-Norman  Invasion, 
would  certainly  contain  some  reference  to  Sligo  if  the  town  then 
existed,  or,  at  all  events,  if  it  had  emerged  from  obscurity.  And 
a  third  work,  though  a  much  more  modern  composition,  but 
founded  on  old  documents,  The  Wars  of  the  Gaels,  which  is 
occupied  with  the  doings  of  the  Danes  in  this  country,  is  as  silent 
about  Sligo  as  the  Life  of  St.  Malachy,  or  the  Topography  of 
Ireland.  To  these  authorities  may  be  added  those  publications 
of  the  Celtic  and  Archaeological  Societies — the  Book  of  Rights, 
and  the  Topographical  Poems  of  O'Dugan  and  O'Heerin — which 
describe  and  illustrate  the  condition  of  Ireland  at  the  arrival  of 
the  English,  in  whose  pages,  as  in  those  already  quoted,  one 
will  look  in  vain  for  the  name  of  Sligo.  But  it  is  useless  to 
pursue  those  quotations  further,  as  it  is  clear,  if  the  town  existed 
and  flourished  in  the  earlier  ages  of  our  era,  as  some  people 
believe,  or,  perhaps,  affect  to  believe,  that  mention  of  it  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  found  in  one  or  more  of  the  writings  already 
referred  to,  which,  for  the  most  part,  were  composed  for  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  G5 


express  purpose  of  commemorating  such  persons  and  things  as 
were  deemed  worthy  of  public  notice. 

It  is  only  in  the  thirteenth  century  we  begin  to  find  at  last 
signs  of  the  district  of  Sligo  being,  or  becoming,  populous.  An 
entry  under  the  year  1227,  in  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  tells  us: 
"  A  depredation  was  committed  in  Sligech  by  the  Justiciary, 
and  by  Brian,  son  of  Turlough  when  they  took  many  women 
prisoners."  The  same  annals  relate  a  similar  occurrence  under 
the  year  1236,  "The  Foreigners  of  Erinn  pursued  Felirnto  Ros- 
common,  and  pursued  him  from  thence  to  the  bridge  of  Sligech  ; 
and  as  they  did  not  overtake  him  they  committed  great  depre- 
dations on  Tadhg  O'Conor;  and  they  then  seized  a  great 
number  of  noble  women,  whom  they  carried  away  with  them  in 
captivity."  But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  these  women,  who 
no  doubt  were  carried  away  by  the  English,  as  the  Sabine  women 
of  old  were  carried  away  by  the  Romans,  to  be  taken  as  wives, 
came  from  the  present  site  of  Sligo,  or  from  the  adjoining 
districts.  It  is  likely,  for  the  reasons  already  indicated,  that 
they  came  from  the  more  elevated  tracts  of  the  neighbourhood, 
such  as  the  Green  Fort  and  Cairns,  where  from  the  earliest 
times  there  must  have  been  some  population,  considering  the 
fame  and  fruitfulness  of  the  Sligo  river. 

The  Sligech  is  one  of  the  longest  known,  and  best  known, 
rivers  in  Ireland,  being  counted  among  the  nine  or  ten  rivers 
which  Partholan,  the  alleged  first  inhabitant  of  the  country 
after  the  flood,  is  said  to  have  found  before  him  on  his  arrival 
in  the  island.*  It  has  also  been  fruitful  to  a  degree  surpassing 
other  Irish  rivers ;  yielding  salmon,  both  above  and  below  the 
waterfall,  all  the  year  round,  unlike  the  other  rivers  which  fail 
to  give  the  fish  at  certain  times  ;  and  before  dredging  and  quay 
building  began,  this  river,  below  the  fall  and  on  both  its  banks, 


*  O'Flaherty's  Ogygia,  translated  by  Rev.  J.  Hely,  Vol.  I.,  p.  5.—  Eochy 
O'Flann,  in  Rerum  Hibernicarum  Scriptores.— Auctore  Carolo  O'Conor,  S.T.D., 
Tom.  I.,  p.  Ivii. 

VOL.   I.  E 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


contained  shell-fish  in  such  abundance  as  to  earn  for  it  the  name 
of  Sligech,  that  is,  the  shelly  river.  To  bring  this  shelliness 
better  home  to  the  mind,  it  is  necessary  to  carry  one's  thoughts 
back  to  those  early  times  when  the  part  of  the  river  below  the  fall 
was  the  chief,  or  the  only,  part  of  it  traversed ;  when  the  common 
passage  from  the  northern  bank  to  the  southern,  and  vice  versa, 
was  over  ihefearsat  or  "flat"  which  lay  between  Stand- Alone- 
Point  and  Finisklin  or  Gibraltar ;  and  when  the  traveller  must 
have  been  ankle  deep  in  shells  and  shell-fish  almost  every  step 
he  took. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  century,  and  for  several  years  later, 
plenty  of  shell-fish  might  be  had  on  or  near  the  spot  on  which 
Lyons's  Terrace  now  stands ;  and  even  at  present,  once  you  go 
outside  the  range  of  the  harbour  works,  turn  where  you  will 
along  the  channel,  you  come  upon  mussels,  in  one  place,  and 
cockles  in  another,  in  such  abundance  as  is  not  to  be  met  with  in 
any  other  estuary  of  the  country.  And  if  the  harbour  works,  by 
ejecting  the  fish  from  their  old  habitat,  have  somewhat  obscured 
the  proofs  which  went  to  show  the  character  of  the  Sligo  river, 
they  have,  on  the  other  hand,  disclosed  to  us  a  fact  which  lets  in 
a  flood  of  light  on  the  subject ;  for  about  the  year  1867,  as  the 
dredging  cans  had  reached  a  greater  depth  than  usual,  they 
touched  on  what  at  first  was  taken  to  be  a  new  stratum  of  earth, 
but  what  proved  to  be  an  oyster  bed,  which,  after  long  discus- 
sion, and  even  legal  investigation,  was  admitted  to  have  been 
there  from  a  time,  of  which  there  existed  neither  memory  nor 
record :  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case  going  far  to  show, 
what  some  had  already  suspected,  that  the  channel  and  the 
whole  region  of  the  river's  mouth,  were  formerly  a  vast  oyster 
bed.  This  abundance  of  oysters  in  the  river  was  so  characteristic 
of  the  place  in  the  past  that  reference  to  it  occurs  in  the  arms 
of  the  town  ;  for  the  hare,  that  is  there  seen  scampering  across 
the  strand  from  the  direction  of  Ballincar,  is  represented  carrying 
on  one  of  its  hind  feet  a  fine  oyster,  on  which  it  had  stepped, 
and  which  closed  upon  the  foot,  as  if  to  signify,  that  the  fish  were 
so  numerous,  that  even  the  light-footed  hare  could  not  cross  the 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  67 


scene  without  bringing  with  it  evidence  of  the  fact.  If  some 
people,  who  have  tried  to  account  for  the  name  of  Sligo  by 
rummaging  for  shells  in  the  boggy  site  of  the  present  town,  had 
been  able  to  realize  the  state  of  things  we  have  been  describing, 
we  should  have  been  spared  pages  of  puerilities  which  it  is  no 
small  penance  to  read.* 

Such  teeming  subsistence  then  in  salmon  and  shell-fish,  as 
this  river  supplied,  could  not  fail  at  any  time  to  attract  people 
to  its  neighbourhood.  And  the  same  cause  that  attracted  them 
would  also  retain  them,  so  far,  at  least,  as  they  could  feel  secure 
against  the  violence  of  the  times.  As  this  security,  however, 

*  "  The  river  Sligo  is  not  remarkable  for  shells  if  we  credit  the  inhabitants 
who  say  they  never  saw  shells  in  it,  and  that  the  town  has  not  taken  its  name 
by  reason  thereof,  for  they  never  call  it  Sligo  river,  it  always  goes  by  the  name 
of  Garvog  in  Irish,  and  Gitly  in  English,  but  by  reason  of  cartloads  of  shells 
having  been  found  under  ground  in  many  places  within  the  town,  where  houses 
stand  now." — Letter  of  T.  O'Connor  to  Sir  T.  Larcom,  dated  Sligo,  September 
12th,  1836. 

Whatever  apology  may  be  offered  for  O'Connor,  who  was  a  stranger  and  a 
bird  of  passage,  none  can  plead  a  similar  excuse  for  Major  Wood-Martin,  who, 
adopting  O'Connor's  theory,  writes  thus  : — "  In  the  Four  Masters,  the  appel- 
lation of  Sligo  is  apparently  derived  from  Sligeach,  signifying  shelly  river,  from 
slig,  a  shell.  Although  such  is  not  now  a  characteristic  of  the  river,  yet, 
shortly  previous  to  1836,  on  sinking  foundations  for  the  erection  of  houses,  a 
quantity  of  white  shells  was  discovered  in  various  localities  within  the  area  now 
occupied  by  the  town;  and  in  1881,  a  similar  result  followed  excavations  for 
the  reception  of  pipes  for  an  intercepting  sewer  along  the  river  bank  within  the 
town.  The  occupants  of  a  range  of  cottages  not  far  from  the  Sligo  strand, 
employ  themselves  during  the  summer  season  in  gathering  cockles  and  mussels. 
The  shells  are  thrown  out  in  a  heap  near  the  cottages  ;  the  white  mass  thus 
formed  is  remarkable,  and  would  accumulate  to  an  immense  pile  were  not  the 
shells  removed  for  spreading  on  walks  instead  of  gravel,  or  for  adding  to  com- 
post heaps,  when  becoming  disintegrated,  the  shells  act  as  lime  in  fertilizing  the 
soil.  Now  if  we  suppose  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Sligo,  with  whom  fish 
formed  a  staple  article  of  diet,  untrammelled  by  police  regulations  forbidding 
refuse  to  be  thrown  out  in  front  of  their  dwellings,  it  is  certain  that  in  the 
course  of  a  very  few  years  the  accumulation  of  shells  would  form  a  deposit 
such  as  is  often  found  in  digging  deeply  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  toivn{?)  and 
the  white  glittering  heaps  seen  from  a  distance  may  not  improbably  have  given 
rise  to  the  distinctive  appellation  of  Sligo,  i.e.  shelly." — History  of  Sligo,  p.  50. 

If  this  were  the  genesis  of  the  name,  there  would  be  no  end  of  Sligos  round 
the  coast  of  Ireland,  as  there  is  no  end  of  cockle  cadgers'  villages  and  their 
"glittering  heaps  "  of  shells. 


68  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


could  hardly  be  expected  on  the  very  banks  of  the  river,  where 
hostile  troops  were  frequently  passing  and  repassiug,  and  where 
individuals  had  no  shelter  or  defence  against  numbers,  it  is 
likely  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  place  resided  habitually  some 
little  distance  up  the  hills,  where  they  would  be  in  great 
measure  out  of  harm's  way,  and  where,  at  the  same  time,  they 
would  be  within  easy  distance  of  the  river,  so  as  to  be  able  to 
go  to  it,  from  time  to  time,  for  their  supplies  of  food.  This 
state  of  things  probably  lasted  for  a  considerable  period,  the 
river  daily  becoming  better  known,  and  daily  attracting  greater 
numbers,  till,  in  the  course  of  time,  they  became  so  numerous 
as  to  invite  the  raids  recorded  in  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce.  And 
it  might  have  lasted  much  longer,  only  that  Maurice  Fitzgerald 
saw  the  great  capabilities  of  the  present  site  of  Sligo,  and 
resolved  to  turn  them  to  due  account. 

The  name  of  Maurice  Fitzgerald  should  be  always  held  in 
honoured  remembrance  by  the  inhabitants  of  Sligo,  he  being 
the  real  founder  of  their  town.  Grandson  of  the  Maurice 
Fitzgerald  who  came  to  Ireland  in  1169  to  aid  Dermot 
McMurrough,  and  son  of  Gerald  Fitz  Maurice,  first  baron  of 
Offaly,  styled  by  Sir  Bernard  Burke,  "  Patriarch  of  the  house  of 
Kildare,"  he  increased  largely  the  honours  and  possessions 
derived  from  father  and  grandfather,  having  been  twice  Lord 
Justice  of  Ireland,  and  having,  in  addition  to  the  lands  inherited 
in  Leinster,  acquired  estates  in  Munster,  Connaught,  and 
Ulster.  Passing  through  Sligo  during  his  second  viceroyalty, 
while  in  conflict  with  the  O'Conors  of  Connaught  and  the 
O'Donnells  of  Tyrconnell,  his  experienced  eye  saw  the  fitness 
of  the  place  for  a  castle,  to  serve  at  once  as  a  garrison  for 
English  troops,  and  as  a  bar  to  the  co-operation  of  his  Con- 
naught  and  northern  enemies.  The  want  of  such  a  fortress  he 
had  experienced  more  than  once  himself  in  his  warfare  with 
the  native  chiefs ;  as,  for  instance,  in  1236,  when  he  sought  to 
capture  Felim,  King  of  Connaught,  and  when  the  king  escaped 
to  O'Donnell,  though  the  English  troops  pursued  him  in  hot 
haste  to  the  bridge  of  Sligo. 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  69 


The  castle  was  built  in  the  year  1245,  according  to  the 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  ;  but,  according  to  Grace's  Annals, 
in  1242,  a  date  which  the  Duke  of  Leinster  adopts.*  King 
Felim,  in  the  first  instance,  was  directed  by  the  Lord  Justice  to 
erect  it,  and  received  for  the  purpose,  as  a  gift  from  Fitzgerald, 
the  lime,  and  stone,  and  other  materials  which  had  been 
designed  for  a  religious  hospital  in  Sligo  ;f  but  Felim  did  not 
proceed  with  the  work,  for  some  reason  not  recorded,  but  most 
probably  from  the  abomination  in  which  Irish  chieftains  held 
castles,  as  the  chief  means  employed  to  despoil  themselves  and 
subjugate  their  country — a  motive  which  must  have  weighed 
all  the  more  with  the  king,  on  recollecting  how  he  profited 
himself  by  the  absence  of  such  a  structure  in  his  escape  from 
the  English  in  1236. 

But  Fitzgerald  was  not  to  be  diverted  from  an  undertaking 
so  calculated  to  further  his  designs  on  Lower  Connaught  and 
Tyrconnell,  and,  taking  the  matter  into  his  own  hands,  he 

*  "  In  1242  he  built  the  caHle  of  Sligo.  "—Earls  of  Kildare.  By  the  Marquis 
of  Kildare,  p.  13. — Grace,  who  is  his  lordship's  authority,  writes  :  "  1242 — Arx 
de  Sligagh  construitur  per  Mauritium  FitzGerald  Justiciarium  Hiberniae." 
Dowliug,  in  his  Annals,  does  not  specify  the  date,  but,  before  the  entries  under 
the  year  1227,  states :  "  Circa  hsec  tempora  Mauritius  FitzGerald  Justiciarius 
Hiberniae  edificavit  castrum  de  Sligagh  in  Conatia,  vivente  Philimo  O'Conchur 
rege  ibidem." — Dowling's  Annals,  p.  14. 

t  We  read  in  the  Four  Masters,  under  the  year  1245,  as  follows: — "The 
castle  of  Sligo  was  erected  by  Maurice  FitzGerald,  Lord  Justice  of  Ireland,  and 
by  the  Sil  Murray  ;  for  Felim  was  ordered  to  erect  it  at  his  own  expense,  and 
to  convey  the  stones,  lime,  and  houses  of  Trinity  Hospital  thither,  after  the 
Lord  Justice  had  granted  that  place  to  Clarus  MacMailin  in  honour  of  the 
Holy  Trinity."  In  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  under  the  year  1245,  the  entry  runs 
thus  :  "  The  castle  of  Sligech  was  built  by  MacMaurice  FitzGerald,  Justiciary 
of  Erinn,  and  by  the  Sil-Muiredhaigh  ;  for  Fedhlim  was  told  to  erect  it  at  his 
own  expense,  and  to  convey  thereto  the  stones  and  lime  of  the  hospital  house 
of  the  Trinity,  after  this  place  had  been  previously  given  by  the  Justiciary,  i.e., 
Maurice  FitzGerald,  to  Clarus  MacMailin  in  honour  of  the  Holy  Trinity." — 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce.  Edited,  with  a  translation,  by  William  M.  Hennessy, 
M.R.I. A.  In  a  note  the  learned  editor  refers  the  reader  to  the  year  1242, 
where  the  grant  of  the  hospital  is  recorded:  "The  Hospital  of  Sligech  was 
presented  by  the  Justiciary  to  Clarus  MacMailin  in  honour  of  the  Trinity." 
The  meaning  of  these  somewhat  obscure  entries  must  be  that  given  to  them  in 
the  text. 


70  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


erected  the  castle ;  adroitly,  however,  associating  the  O'Conors 
with  himself  in  the  erection,  for  the  purpose,  no  doubt,  of 
securing  their  interest  in  a  structure,  which  they  had  so  much 
to  do  with  themselves. 

Having   incurred   the   displeasure    of  Henry  III.   by  some 
dilatoriness,  real  or  imagined,  in  executing  an  order  of  the  king, 
calling  him  to  Wales,  Fitzgerald  was  deprived  of'the  viceroyalty 
in  1245,  but  he  did  not,  on  that  account,  desist  from  a  main 
object  he  had  in  view  in  building  the  castle,  which  was,  to  take 
Sligo  to  himself  from  both  the  northern  Irish  and  those  of 
Lower  Connaught.     Accordingly,  in   1246,  he  raised  an  army 
at  his  private  expense,  and,  invading  Tyrconnell,  divided  that 
territory  into  two  parts,  giving  one  part  to  a  creature  of  his, 
Cormac,  the  grandson  of  King  Roderick  O'Conor,  and  leaving 
the   other   to    Melaghlin   O'Donnell,   requiring   from   him,   in 
guarantee  of  good  faith,  hostages  which  the  English  took  with 
them  to  Sligo,  and  left  there  in  the  new  castle.     O'Donnell 
chafed  under  this  indignity  and  injury;  and  making  a  dash,  in 
1246,  at  Sligo  to  recover  the  hostages,  he  failed  to  penetrate 
into  the  castle,  though  he  had  forced  his  way  into  the  bawn  or 
fortified  area  that  surrounded  the  structure.     To  complete  his 
discomfiture  and  humiliation  the  English  hanged  the  hostages 
before  his  eyes  from  the  battlements  of  the  castle,  just  as  he 
was  beginning  his  retreat.     Nor  did  his  misfortunes  end  here ; 
for  FitzGerald,  having  made  elaborate  preparations  to  punish 
the  attack  on  Sligo,  and  to  strike  a  decisive  blow  against  the 
Irish,   proceeded    in    1247,    accompanied    by   his    henchman, 
Cormac  O'Conor,  to  the  north,  crossed  the  Erne,  after  a  long 
and  gallant  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Cinel  Connell  and  the 
Cinel  Owen,  slew  O'Donnell,  scattered  his  forces,  devastated 
his  territory,  seized   vast  herds  of  his  cattle,  and  set  up,  in  the 
room  of  the  fallen  chief,  a  new  ruler,   Rory  O'Canannain,  a 
member  of  the  family  that  ruled  Tyrconnell,  before  Melaghlin 
O'Donnell  got  to  the  head  of  affairs.     FitzGerald  had  hardly 
turned  his   back  when    O'Canannain   renounced   the  English 
connexion,  feeling  that  his  tenure  of  office,  and  even  of  life, 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  71 


would  be  very  short  among  the  Cinel  Connell  if  he  adhered  to 
his  foreign  patrons.  To  punish  this  backsliding,  the  son  of 
FitzGerald,  at  the  instigation  of  Godfrey  O'Donnell,  a  son  of 
Donnell,  led  an  army  to  the  north,  but  O'Canannain,  at  the 
head  of  the  Cinel  Connell,  took  his  stand  on  the  banks  of  the 
Erne,  and  stopped  the  advance  of  the  invaders.  On  the  failure 
of  the  son,  the  father,  Maurice  FitzGerald,  took  the  field  in 
person,  and  defeated  the  Ciuel  Connell,  making  Godfrey  chief, 
and  banishing  O'Canannain,  who  soon  fell  fighting  in  an 
attempt  to  regain  his  lost  position. 

If  O'Canannain  cost  FitzGerald  trouble  and  treasure,  Godfrey 
O'Donnell  in  the  end  cost  him  his  life.  At  first  the  new  ruler 
of  Tyrconnell  practised  great  self-restraint  in  regard  to  the 
English,  and  confined  his  forays  to  the  Irish  of  Tyrone  and 
Fermanagh ;  but,  alarmed  at  the  continued  advance  of  Fitz- 
Gerald, and  maddened  by  the  castle  of  Gael  Uisce,  which  that 
able  man  had  erected,  or  rather  re-erected — for  it  was  first  built 
in  1211 — O'Donnell,  to  break  through  the  net  being  drawn 
around  him,  having  found  a  favourable  opportunity,  demolished 
the  castle  of  Cael  Uisce,  and  burned  and  plundered  the  town  of 
Sligo,  slaying  great  numbers  of  the  English  there.  Pursued,  as 
they  were  carrying  off  the  booty,  by  a  large  army  of  English, 
collected  from  all  sides,  and  led  by  Maurice  Fitzgerald,  the 
Northerns  halted  to  give  battle  in  Roscede  or  the  Bosses,  at 
a  place  called,  in  the  Four  Masters,  Creadran  Cille,  and,  in  the 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  Credran-Columb-Cille.* 

Both  leaders  and  men  behaved  themselves  with  great  spirit. 
While  the  battle  was  in   progress  O'Donnell  and  Fitzgerald 


*  Four  Masters,  1257— Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1257—  Credran  Cille  or  Credran 
Columcille  has  hitherto  eluded  identification.  The  writer  is  of  opinion  that 
Credran  is  a  colloquial  contraction  for  Cor-eder-da-abain,  i.e.,  the  Round 
hill  between  the  two  rivers,  an  exact  description  of  the  surface  and  position 
of  the  spot,  as  it  lies  between  the  Sligo  and  Drumcliffe  rivers.  And  that  the 
place  was  known  topographically  as  the  spot  "  between  the  two  rivers,"  we  may 
infer  from  a  phrase  of  McFirbis,  who  thus  writes  of  it — Verum  Murchertus 
O'Connor  cum  Carbriis  eos  inter  duos  fluvios  assecuti,  &c.  (In  O'Donovan's 
Four  Masters,  sub  anno,  1396.) 


72  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


sought  each  other  out,  and,  engaging  in  a  single  hand  to  hand 
encounter,  they  fought  with  such  resolution,  that  both  of  them 
were  mortally  wounded.  After  desperate  fighting  the  English 
were  beaten  and  routed,  and  nothing,  says  the  chronicler,  but 
the  wounds  of  Godfrey  prevented  him  from  chasing  the  flying 
enemy  beyond  the  Moy.  Maurice  was  the  first  to  succumb  to 
his  wounds.  Sick  in  body,  and  sore  in  mind,  seeing  his  power 
in  Connaught  so  shaken,  he  was  carried  to  Youghal  to  a  monas- 
tery which  he  had  himself  founded;  and  there  this  renowned 
statesman  and  warrior  died,  in  the  habit  of  a  Friar  Minor. 

O'DonnelFs  end  was  still  more  sensational  and  dramatic. 
Having  been  carried  back  to  the  north  and  having,  for  greater 
quietness  and  security,  been  placed  in  an  island  of  Loch 
Beathach,  in  the  barony  of  Kilmacrenan,  county  of  Donegal, 
his  enemy,  Brian  O'Neil,  of  Tyrone,  on  hearing  of  his  helpless 
and  hopeless  condition,  demanded  hostages,  in  token  of  the 
submission  of  the  Cinel  Connell.  Roused  by  the  danger  which 
threatened  his  people,  Godfrey  called  them  to  arms,  ordered  at 
once  the  bier  in  which  he  was  to  be  buried,  and  directing  his 
followers  to  lift  him  out  of  the  bed  in  which  he  lay,  and  place 
him  in  the  bier,  had  himself  thus  carried,  in  the  midst  of  his 
troops,  to  meet  the  enemy.  The  battle  took  place  on  the  banks 
of  the  S  willy,  near  Letterkenny,  where  the  Cinel  Connell,  fired 
by  the  example  and  exhortations  of  their  dying  chief,  rushed 
against  the  Cinel  Owen,  bore  them  down  on  all  points,  and 
compelled  them  to  fly,  leaving  "  on  the  field  many  men,  horses, 
and  a  great  quantity  of  valuable  property."  The  battle  over, 
his  faithful  people  took  the  victorious  chief  again  on  their 
shoulders  for  the  return  journey,  but  they  had  not  gone  far, 
when,  finding  that  his  end  was  just  at  band,  they  laid  him  down 
in  the  open  street  of  a  village,  called  then  Congbhail,  now 
Conwal,  to  die  a  death,  which,  for  devotedness  to  country  and 
sacrifice  of  self,  was  as  glorious  as  any  ever  chronicled  in  history, 
or  imagined  in  romance. 

After  describing  the  battle  of  Creadran  Cille,  the  Annals  of 
the  Four  Masters  add  the  observation,  "  In  consequence  of  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  73 


success  of  this  battle  the  English  and  the  Geraldines  were  driven 
out  of  Lower  Connaught ;"  but,  that  this  assertion  is  true  only 
in  a  very  modified  sense,  and  that  the  Geraldines,  though  much 
weakened,  and  residing  generally  elsewhere,  still  kept  a  grip 
of  their  possessions  in  Lower  Connaught,  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence to  show.  In  12GO  "  a  depredation  was  committed  l>y 
MacMaurice  on  O'Donnell.  A  party  of  O'Donnell's  men  over- 
took them  (i.e.  the  plunderers)  at  Beannan  Breacmhoighe,  and 
burned  and  killed  some  of  them.  A  great  depredation  was 
committed  on  Fitzmaurice  by  O'Donnell,  who  plundered  the 
whole  of  Carbury."  O'Donnell  would  not  have  plundered 
Carbury  if  he  did  not  regard  it  as  a  possession  of  his  enemies, 
the  Geraldines,  nor  would  the  latter  have  defended  it  against 
him  if  they  did  not  still  hold  it  as  their  own.  But  the  Geral- 
dines were  so  occupied  about  this  time  with  the  O'Briens  and 
MacCarthys  in  the  South,  and  the  Burkes  in  the  west,  that 
they  were  fain  let  Carbury  shift,  in  great  part,  for  itself.  In 
their  conflict  with  the  Burkes,  then  represented  by  Walter, 
Earl  of  Ulster,  they  proceeded  so  far  as  to  seize,  and  imprison, 
in  the  castles  of  Lea  and  Dunamase,  Eichard  de  Burgh,  the 
Earl's  heir,  together  with  the  Lord  Justice  Richard  de  Rupella, 
or  Capella,  John  Cogan,  and  Theobald  Butler ;  an  act  which 
threw  the  whole  country  into  commotion,  and  which  the  Earl  of 
Ulster  avenged  by  carrying  a  desolating  war  into  the  Connaught 
possessions  of  the  Geraldines,  and  taking  to  himself  their  Con- 
naught  Castles,  that  of  Sligo  being  of  course  among  them  ;  but 
whoever  held  this  castle  in  1265,  it  was  demolished,  that  year, 
by  Hugh,  son  of  Felim  O'Conor  and  Donnell  Oge  O'Donnell,  as 
well  as  the  castles  of  Benada  and  Rath-ard-creeve,  the  former 
place  being  a  well-known  village  in  the  county  Sligo,  and  the 
latter,  though  hitherto  not  identified,  being  undoubtedly  the 
townland  of  Ardcree,  in  the  parish  of  Kilvarnet,  barony  of 
Leyney,  and  county  of  Sligo. 

Again,  in  1269,  we  find  the  Geraldines  asserting  their  owner- 
ship of  Sligo,  by  re-erecting  the  castle,  which  Hugh  O'Conor 
and  Donnell  Oge  O'Donnell  had  destroyed  four  years  before. 


74  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


But  still  they  had  so  much  on  hand  in  other  places,  that  they 
were  not  able  to  hinder  O'Donnell  and  the  Cinel  Connell  from 
burning  the  town  of  Sligo  in  1270,  nor  Hugh  O'Conor  from 
demolishing  the  castle  in  1271.  And,  owing  to  the  same  cause, 
they  let  the  castle  He  in  ruins  from  1271  to  1293,  when,  as  the 
Annals  of  Ulster  have  it,  "  The  Castle  of  Sligo  was  made  by 
John  FitzThomas,  and  he  went  over  to  the  King  of  England's 
house;"  though  the  structure  was  hardly  erected  when  Hugh, 
son  of  Owen  O'Conor,  King  of  Connaught,  apparently  during 
the  absence  of  John  FitzThomas  in  England,  came  and  levelled 
it  again  with  the  ground.  Engrossed,  however,  with  weightier 
cares,  John  FitzThomas  was  unable,  this  time,  to  see  to  the 
rebuilding  of  it ;  for  that  characteristic  spirit  of  the  Geraldines, 
which  would  brook  no  man  as  superior,  whether  the  man  was  in 
a  private,  or  in  an  official  station,  involved  him  in  a  protracted 
quarrel  with  William  de  Yesci,  Lord  Justice  of  Ireland  ;  and 
though  FitzGerald's  immense  influence  in  England  and  Ireland, 
not  only  averted  evil  consequences,  but  turned  the  contest  to 
his  credit  and  advantage,  still  he  had  no  sooner  triumphed  over 
De  Yesci,  than,  in  an  evil  hour,  he  laid  hands  on  Richard  de 
Burgh,  the  famous  Red  Earl,  the  first  subject  of  the  realm, 
confined  him  for  three  months,  from  the  6th  December  to  the 
12th  March,  1295,  in  the  Castle  of  Ley,  and  thus,  if  we  are  to 
credit  Grace's  Annals  of  Ireland,  brought  on  himself  the  royal 
displeasure,  with  the  loss  of  Sligo  and  all  his  other  possessions 
in  Connaught.  If  he  lost  his  Sligo  estate  on  this  occasion,  he 
soon  recovered  possession  of  it,  for  we  find  him  pledging  it  for 
his  liabilities  in  1298,  when  the  Lord  Justice,  Sir  John  Wogan, 
brought  about  a  reconciliation  and  family  alliance  between  the 
two  houses  of  De  Burgh  and  FitzGerald,  There  is  nothing  in 
the  annals  or  records  of  the  country  to  show  that,  after  this  date, 
the  Geraldines  exercised  any  act  of  authority  or  ownership  in 
Sligo,  though  it  seems  certain  they  never  relinquished  their 
pretensions,  for  so  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
O'Connors  and  O'Donnells  were  contending  for  the  lordship  or 
captaincy  of  the  territory,  we  find  the  Earl  of  Kildare  of  the 


HISTORY   OF   SUGO.  75 


day  laying  his  own  claims  to  the  dignity  before  the  Lord  Deputy 
and  the  Queen. 

As  the  secular  history  of  the  town  of  Sligo  may  be  said  to 
begin  with  Maurice  FitzGerald,  so  also  may  the  ecclesiastical.  It 
is  true,  there  is  mention  in  old  authors  of  a  St.  Mofrisius,  <:  son 
of  Fachtna  of  Sliged,"  called  in  the  Martyrology  of  Tallaght, 
"  Midu  mac  Fachtna  OSligid,"  who  must  have  lived  long  before 
FitzGerald's  day,  but  this  would  merely  show  that  a  certain 
religious  person  dwelt,  in  very  early  times,  somewhere  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  but  not  that  he  resided  in  the  site  of  the 
present  town,  which,  for  reasons  already  stated,  would  have  been 
a  very  unsuitable  place  to  occupy.  Unfortunately  there  is 
nothing  known  of  this  saint  beyond  the  mere  fact  that  he 
existed,  and  that  he  was  one  of  the  "  saints,"  or  religious  persons, 
who  came  to  honour  Columba  at  Ballysadare,  when  that  saint 
was  passing  through  the  place  after  the  famous  convention  of 
Dromceat. 

Even  before  Maurice  FitzGerald  built  the  castle,  he  had 
endeavoured  to  have  a  religious  house  erected  in  Sligo,  as  it 
were  for  the  purpose  of  consecrating  the  soil  of  the  place  for  the 
secular  structures  he  meant  to  raise.  In  this  pious  undertaking 
he  was  associated  with  the  famous  Clarus  McMailin,  Archdeacon 
of  Elphin,  and  head  of  the  Premonstratensian  Monastery  of  the 
Trinity,  in  Trinity  Island,  Loch  Ce,  the  most  distinguished 
ecclesiastic  of  that  time  in  Ireland.  This  remarkable  man 
devoted  himself  to  the  introduction  and  propagation  of  the 
Premonstratensian  Order  in  Ireland,  a  work  in  which  he  was 
singularly  successful,  having  established  houses  of  the  order  in 
Loch  Ce,  Lough  Outer,  Ardcarne,  Kilross,  and  other  places. 
Being  respected  for  his  zeal  and  other  virtues  by  the  English  as 
much  as  the  Irish,  he  had  little  difficulty,  wherever  he  applied, 
in  procuring  sites  for  his  establishments,  as  also  aid  towards 
their  erection,  and  suitable  endowments.  Maurice  FitzGerald, 
when  Lord  Justice,  was  a  great  admirer  of  Clarus,  and  among 
other  marks  of  confidence  and  esteem,  presented  him  with  a 
plot  of  ground  in  Sligo  for  a  religious  house,  and  with  the  means 


76  HISTOKY   OF   SLIGO. 


to  build  it.  For  some  cause  not  mentioned,  the  work  was  not 
proceeded  with,  though  costly  preparations  were  made  for  it, 
and  all  the  building  materials  collected.  From  the  words  of  the 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  and  those  of  the  Four  Masters,  it  would 
appear  that  a  different  kind  of  foundation  was  intended  for 
Sligo,  from  those  which  Clarus  McMailin  had  established  else- 
where, as  that  of  Sligo  is  designated  an  hospital-house — in  Irish, 
tige  spidel — while  the  others  are  called  monasteries  for  Canons — 
in  Irish,  mainisdrech  cananach; — and  the  reason  why  the 
hospital-house  was  not  eventually  built  may  perhaps  be  found 
in  this  difference,  as  the  Archdeacon  would  naturally  have  no 
great  desire  to  go  on  with  an  undertaking,  that  he  must  have 
found  to  be  alien  to  his  favourite  institute,  which  had  not  for 
aim,  at  least  not  for  direct  aim,  to  occupy  itself  with  laymen, 
but  to  form  ecclesiastics  of  high  attainments,  combining  at  once 
the  virtues  of  the  monk  and  those  of  the  secular  priest. 

If  the  project  of  a  religious  house  came  to  nothing  on  this 
occasion,  it  was  taken  up  again,  ten  years  later,  and  carried  into 
effect  when  Maurice  FitzGerald  founded  the  monastery  of  the 
Dominicans,  and  had  an  adjoining  cemetery  consecrated. 
Maurice  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  Franciscans  and  Domi- 
nicans into  Ireland ;  and  having  founded  a  house  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans at  Youghal,  in  or  about  1232,  it  was  natural  that  he 
should,  next  time,  confer  a  like  distinction  on  the  Dominicans. 
Under  any  circumstances  his  great  piety  would  lead  him  to 
extend  religious  foundations  ;  but  in  founding  the  Sligo  house, 
he  was  moved  not  only  by  his  general  dispositions,  but  also,  it 
is  said,  by  a  special  desire  to  make  reparation  for  the  part  which 
he  had,  whether  unintentionally,  as  himself  alleged,  an'd  swore, 
or  by  design,  as  many  others  asserted,  in  the  tragic  end  of 
Richard  Earl  Marshall,  an  occurrence  which  created  a  more 
profound  sensation,  in  both  England  and  Ireland,  than  perhaps 
any  other  event  of  the  period.  If  the  original  records  of  the 
monastery  still  existed,  we  should  doubtless  find  that  FitzGerald 
had  provided  for  a  perpetual  Mass  for  the  deceased  EarFs  soul, 
and  had  probably  endowed  a  chantry  for  the  purpose. 


H  [STORY   OF   SLIGO.  77 


Though  the  erection  of  the  monastery  of  Sligo  is  recorded  both 
in  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  and  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce, 
the  name  of  the  founder  is  mentioned  in  neither.  In  this 
silence,  as  also  in  the  similar  silence  of  Clyn,  Dowling,  and 
Grace,  a  Dominican  writer  of  the  last  century,  John  O'Heyne, 
took  on  himself,  without  authority  or  proof  of  any  kind,  to  credit 
one  of  the  O'Connors  with  the  erection ;  but,  in  so  doing,  he 
differs  from  all  the  writers  who  preceded  him  and  followed  him 
on  the  subject,  for  Ware,  Lodge,  Harris,  De  Burgo,  as  well  as 
recent  writers,  like  the  Marquis  of  Kildare,  are  unanimous  in 
referring  the  work  to  Maurice  FitzGerald.  And  all  these 
authorities,  with  the  apparent  exception  of  the  Marquis  of 
Kildare,  who  by  a  misprint,  gives  1236,  are  agreed  in  assigning 
1252  or  1253,  as  the  date  of  the  building.* 

To  anyone  who  has  realized  the  condition  of  things  in  Sligo 
about  the  year  1252,  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  on  the  subject, 
as  Maurice  FitzGerald  was  at  that  period  sole  owner  and  arbiter 
of  the  place;  nor  could  even  a  cabin  be  put  up  there  at  the 
time  without  his  authority.  It  was,  besides,  long  after  this 
the  O'Connors  obtained  any  footing  in  the  town.  Considering 
the  means,  and  taste,  and  experience  of  FitzGerald,  the  new 
structure,  in  its  style  and  proportions,  must  have  been  worthy 
of  its  destination;  but  it  would  be  difficult  now  to  discriminate 
between  the  parts  of  the  original  building  and  those  of  later 
erection ;  nor  is  this  the  place  to  make  the  attempt,  which  may 
be  tried  hereafter.  Anyhow7,  the  site,  from  whatever  point  of 


*  Seeing  a  different  date  given  in  the  Earls  of  Kildare  for  the  foundation  of 
the  monastery  from  that  assigned  by  other  authorities,  the  writer  took  the 
liberty  of  bringing  the  matter  under  the  notice  of  the  late  Duke  of  Leinster,  and 
of  requesting  to  be  informed  whether  there  was  any  mistake  in  the  date  of  1236. 
His  GJrace  kindly  replied  as  follows  by  return  of  post : — 

"  Carton,  Maynooth,  9th  January, . 

"  VERY  REV.  SIR — I  have  received  your  letter  of  yesterday,  and  beg  to  say, 
in  reply,  that  I  have  no  doubt  the  date  1236,  in  my  book  is  a  misprint. 

"  I  am  your  obedient  Servant, 

"  LEINSTER. 
"The  Very  Rev.  T.  O'Rorke,  D.D.,  P.P.,"  &c. 


78  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


view  it  is  considered,  was  most  suitable  for  a  religious 
establishment  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Defended  in  front 
and  rere  by  the  hills  of  Rathavritoge  (Green  Fort)  and  Cairns, 
which  no  doubt  were  well  fortified  by  so  experienced  a  soldier 
as  Maurice  FitzGerald  ;  with  the  grassy  slopes  of  Cleveragh 
and  Cairns  for  their  flocks  and  herds ;  with  an  unlimited  supply, 
from  the  lake,  on  one  side,  and  from  the  sea,  on  the  other,  of 
excellent  fish — so  essential  an  article  of  food,  when  half  the 
days  of  the  year  were  maigre  days;  and  with  the  prestige  of 
having  the  first  man  in  the  country  for  'their  founder  and 
patron;  the  Dominicans  of  Sligo  were  held  in  greater  con- 
sideration, and  enjoyed  more  of  the  securities,  conveniences, 
and  comforts  of  life  than  the  religious  of  most  other  places.  Aud 
in  other  important  respects  they  were  equally  fortunate.  On 
the  border  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque  lakes  of  Europe ; 
over  the  banks  of  a  fine  river  ;  in  full  view  of  the  noble  mountain 
scenery  which  stretches  from  Dromahair  to  near  the  sea  coast 
of  Carbury  ;  reminded  by  the  running  river  and  the  everlasting 
hills  respectively  of  the  fleeting  life  of  the  world,  which  they 
had  abandoned,  and  the  "eternal  weight  of  glory,"  for  which 
they  now  lived  and  laboured;  they  had  always  around  them 
objects  admirably  fitted  to  gratify  their  taste  and  nurture  their 
devotion. 

At  no  time  since  the  invasion  had  the  Anglo-Normans  such 
sway  in  Ireland  as  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  At 
that  date  Maurice  FitzGerald,  the  Justiciary,  Hugh  de  Lacy, 
Earl  of  Ulster,  Richard  Burke,  "  Great  Lord  of  Connaught,"  and 
Walter  de  Ridelsford,  High  Baron  of  Leinster,  led  an  army  from 
east  to  west  and  from  north  to  south  of  Ireland,  trampling  down 
all  opposition  before  them,  The  state  in  which  they  left  the 
places  through  which  they  had  passed,  may  be  gathered  from 
what  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  tell  respecting  Connaught :— "The 
Foreigners  left  Connaught  without  food,  clothes,  or  cattle ;  and 
they  did  not  carry  off  with  them  either  pledges  or  hostages  on 
this  journey ;  and  they  left  neither  peace,  nor  quietness,  nor 
tranquillity,  nor  happiness,  in  the  country  ;  but  the  Gael  them- 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  79 


selves  were  robbing  and  killing  one  another  regarding  the 
residue  which  the  Foreigners  left  in  it  on  this  occasion."  A  few 
years  later,  when  the  Lord  Justice,  Theobald  Butler,  was  leading 
an  army  to  the  north,  the  Cinel  Owen  were  so  cowed  as  to  adopt 
the  resolution,  "  that  since  the  power  of  the  Foreigners  was 
over  the  Gael  of  Erinn,  to  give  hostages  to  the  Foreigners,  and 
to  make  peace  with  them  for  the  sake  of  their  country." 

At  this  time  the  population  of  Sligo  was  exclusively,  or  almost 
exclusively,  English.  The  two  establishments,  which  employed 
most  of  the  inhabitants,  the  castle  and  the  monastery,  were 
English  in  their  origin  and  inmates.  They  would  therefore 
employ  only  fellow-countrymen,  and,  at  a  moment  when  feelings 
of  nationality  were  exceptionally  strong,  would  have  as  little  as 
possible  to  do  with  the  Irish.  Of  the  nationality  of  those  who 
occupied  the  castle  there  can  be  no  doubt,  they  being  the 
English  troops  of  Maurice  FitzGerald ;  while  the  inmates  of  the 
monastery  must  also  have  come  from  England,  there  being  no 
Irish  Friars  Preachers  in  the  county  at  that  time.  The  frequent 
resort  of  English  to  the  town  would  also  go  to  show  they  were 
numerous  there.  In  1249,  a  party  of  young  men,  with  Pierce 
Poer,  and  Daniel  Trew  at  their  head,  were  on  the  way  to  the 
castle  of  Sligo,  when  they  were  encountered  and  defeated  by 
Hugh  O'Conor.  In  the  same  year,  after  a  campaign,  in  which 
the  Lord  Justice  and  FitzGerald  acted  in  concert,  and  plundered 
and  wasted  Roscommon  and  Breffney,  when  the  Justiciary 
returned  to  Meath,  FitzGerald  proceeded  with  the  English  of 
Connaught  and  Munster  to  Sligo,  to  rest  himself  and  his  forces 
in  the  town.  The  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  (1269),  record 
that  Brian,  son  of  Donnell  Duv  O'Hara,  was  slain  by  the  English 
of  Sligo,  probably  in  some  raid  which  they  made  from  the  town 
to  Leyney.  As  Tireragh  too,  at  this  period,  from  the  Moy  to 
Ballysadare,  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Berminghams  and  the 
English,  there  must  have  been  frequent  and  friendly  intercourse 
between  Bermingham's  people  and  their  fellow-countrymen  of 
Sligo.  With  so  many  proofs  of  English  life  and  action  in  and 
around  Sligo,  and  without  anything  to  show  the  presence  of 


80  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Irishmen  in  the  place,  there  is  good  ground  for  thinking,  that 
the  native  element  was  rigidly  excluded,  as  far  as  possible,  from 
the  Sligo  of  the  FitzGeralds  ;  though  in  spite  of  every  effort  to 
shut  them  out,  Irishmen,  from  time  to  time,  as  we  have  seen, 
paid  flying  visits,  which  would  have  been  gladly  declined,  as  on 
All  Saints'  Day,  1247,  when  the  Cinel  Connell  made  their  way 
into  the  bawn  ;  in  1257,  when  Godfrey  O'Donnell  burned  the 
town,  and  took  away  its  valuables;  in  1271,  when  Donnell  Oge 
O'Donnell  laid  it  again  in  ashes  ;  and  in  the  same  year,  when 
Hugh,  the  son  of  Felim  O'Conor,  demolished-the  castle,  which  it 
had  failed  the  two  O'Donnells  to  reach. 

Unfortunately  there  are  hardly  any  data  which  would  enable 
one  to  draw  out  a  view,  however  imperfect,  of  Sligo,  as  it 
appeared  under  the  Geraldines,  in  the  thirteenth  century.  From 
what  is  said  in  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  under  the  year  1246,  of 
"the  bawn  of  the  town,"  we  may  conclude  that  the  place  was 
protected  by  some  kind  of  fortification.  The  word  "  bawn  "  is 
derived  by  some  from  the  German  verb  "  bauen,"  to  build,  and 
by  others  from  the  Irish  word  "badhun,"  sometimes  written 
"  bodun,"  a  cow- fort ;  but  whatever  may  be  the  derivation — 
and  the  second  seems  the  correct  one — the  Irish  term  for 
"  bawn  "  came  in  the  course  of  time  to  mean  a  fortified  enclo- 
sure for  men,  or  horses,  or  cows,  or  other  valuables,  though, 
earlier,  it  signified  only  a  cow-fort,  cows  or  cattle  being  then  the 
only  wealth  people  possessed.  Those  bawns  were  constructed  of 
different  materials  at  different  times ;  at  first,  of  sods  and  stakes, 
and,  later,  of  lime  and  stone.  "  The  earlier  kind  of  bawn,"  says 
a  well  imformed  writer  in  the  Ulster  Journal  of  Archaeology, 
"  seems  to  have  been  an  enclosure,  square  or  circular,  surrounded 
by  a  thick  embankment  of  earth,  impaled  with  wooden  stakes 
or  branches  of  trees,  and  surrounded  with  a  deep  trench  ;"  but 
as  time  progressed,  and  mechanical  knowledge  advanced,  some 
bawns  became  substantial,  and  even  massive  structures  of  solid 
masonry,  flanked  in  several  instances  with  towers  thirty  or 
forty  feet  high,  the  curtain  walls  being  twenty  feet  or  more  high, 
and  four,  five,  or  six  feet  thick.  The  bawn  of  Sligo  was,  no 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  81 

doubt,  of  the  more  primitive  kind,  something  like  that  which  we 
read  of  in  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  and  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  as  existing  at  Rindown,  and  consisting  of  "ramparts 
and  ditches."  Within  this  inclosure  stood  the  castle  and  the 
monastery ;  within  it,  in  small,  rude  huts  of  timber,  covered 
with  strips  of  sod,  dwelled  the  retainers  of  the  castle  and  the 
servants  or  labourers  of  the  monastery  ;  within  it  was  held  the 
market  in  which  the  residents  purchased  such  commodities  as 
they  needed,  and  could  find  ;  and  into  it  were  driven  at  night, 
and,  not  unfrequently,  when  forays  were  apprehended,  for  the 
day,  or  for  several  days,  the  cattle  and  horses  belonging  to  the 
castle  and  the  monks.  Without  probably  any  sensible  departure 
from  historical  truth  and  accuracy,  we  may  then  figure  to  our- 
selves the  bawn  stretching  from  near  the  old  distillery  to  Knap- 
pagh  Road,  and  from  the  river  up  to  the  rising  ground,  which 
runs  from  the  Convent  of  Mercy  to  the  Dominican  Church ;  this 
space  being  fenced  in,  on  the  north,  chiefly  by  the  river,  and,  on 
the  other  three  sides,  by  a  rampart,  fosse,  and  palisades.  And 
if  we  stand,  in  thought,  on  the  rising  ground  that  overlooks  the 
bawn,  and  observe  for  a  little  what  falls  under  the  eye  in  the 
enclosure — the  area  all  astir  with  military  manoeuvres, — some 
repairing  or  strengthening  the  fortifications,  several  engaged 
here  and  there  with  their  horses  or  armour,  and  numbers 
receiving  training  and  instructions  for  contemplated  nestings — 
we  shall  gain  a  fair  idea  of  the  Sligo  of  Maurice  FitzGerald  and 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  learn  that  it  had  the  look  and 
character  of  a  garrison  far  more  than  of  an  ordinary  town. 


VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  O'CONNORS  AND  SLIGO. 

IT  was  just  as  the  Geraldines  were  losing  their  hold  on  Sligo 
that  members  of  that  branch  of  the  O'Conor  family  which 
received,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  name  of  O'Connor 
Sligo,  were  coming  to  the  front  in  the  transactions  of  the 
district.  These  O'Connors  led  a  singularly  quiet  and  retired 
life  for  more  than  a  century  before  the  time  at  which  we  are 
now  arrived,  that  is,  from  the  death,  in  1181,  of  their  ancestor, 
Brian  Luighnech,  the  son  of  Turlough  More,  King  of  Con- 
naught.  At  the  date  mentioned,  when  Brian  was  slain  in  the 
battle  of  Crich  Carbury,  they  disappear  from  view,  and  do  not 
reappear  till  the  fourth  quarter  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In 
the  interval  between  those  two  dates,  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters  are  filled  with  the  doings  of  the  other  sons  of  Turlough 
More,  especially  with  those  of  Roderic,  of  Cathal  Croderg,  of 
Hugh  Brefneach,  and  of  Murtough  Muimneach ;  but  one  would 
search  in  vain  through  all  our  Annals  for  the  movements  of 
the  sons  of  Brian  Luighnech — a  fact  which  of  itself  suffices  to 
show  the  decisiveness  of  the  battle  of  Crich  Carbury. 

This  battle  was  fought  at  a  place  called  Magh-Diughbha,* 
which  has  not  been  hitherto  identified,  but  which  can  be  no 
other  than  the  plain  or  valley  of  the  river  Duff,  as  the  name 
imports,  Magh-Diughbha  signifying  literally  the  plain  of  the 
Duff.  The  combatants  were,  on  the  one  side,  the  troops  of  the 
north,  under  the  leadership  of  Flaherty  O'Muldory,  the  chief 
of  Tirconnell,  and  on  the  other,  the  forces  of  Connaught,  under 
the  command,  no  doubt,  of  Brian  Luighnech,  though  this  is 

*  Annals  of  Lough  Ce,  1181. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  S3 


not  expressly  stated.  The  subject  of  dispute  was  the  rule  of 
Carbury,  or  perhaps  the  rule  of  all  Lower  Connaught,  from  the 
Curlew  Mountains  to  the  river  Erne.  This  subject  was,  often 
before,  the  occasion  of  military  or  diplomatic  meetings  between 
the  rulers  of  the  north  and  those  of  Connaught ;  as,  for  instance, 
in  1151,  when  "  an  army  was  led  by  the  son  of  Nial  O'Lochlan, 
with  the  Cinel  Connell,  Cinel  Owen,  and  Airghialla,  across 
Eas  Roe,  until  they  reached  the  Curlews,  in  Coran.  Thither 
hostages  were  brought  to  them  by  Turlough  O'Conor,  and  they 
returned  to  their  houses  ;"*  and  in  the  year  1152,  when  "a 
meeting  took  place  between  O'Lochlan  and  Turlough  O'Conor 
at  Magh-Ene,  where  they  made  friendship  under  the  Staff  of 
Jesus,  and  under  the  relics  of  Colum-Cille."  f 

But  the  battle  of  Magh-Diughbha  was  an  event  of  transcen- 
dent importance,  a  great  pitched  battle,  which  both  sides  felt 
to  be  decisive  of  their  pretensions  to  the  disputed  territory,  and 
in  which,  accordingly,  they  put  forth  all  their  strength.  The 
result  was  disastrous  to  the  Connaught  men,  who  not  only 
lost  sixteen  J  chiefs  of  the  O'Conor  family,  including  Brian 
Luighnech  and  Manus,  two  sons  of  Turlough  More;  three 
grandsons,  Melaghlin,  Murray,  and  Mur tough ;  and  very  many 
others,  high-born  and  humble-born — " nobiles  et  ignobiles;" 
but  sustained  all  round  so  crushing  a  defeat  that,  in  the  words 
of  the  Four  Masters,  "  the  Cinel  Connell  held  the  Connacians 
for  a  long  time  after  this  battle  under  subjection."  §  It  is 

*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1151. 

t  Ibid.,  1152. 

J  Ibid.,  1181. 

§  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1181.  This  battle  being  so  important,  the 
teader  will  like  to  have  before  him  the  very  words  in  which  our  annalists 
describe  it :  "  Flaherty  O'Muldory,"  says  the  Four  Masters,  "  Lord  of  Tir- 
connell,  defeated  the  sons  of  the  King  of  Connaught  on  the  Saturday  before 
Whitsuntide.  Sixteen  of  the  sons  of  the  lords  and  chieftains  of  Connaught 
were  slain  by  the  Cinel  Connell,  as  well  as  many  others,  both  of  the  nobles 
and  plebeians.  They  held  the  Connacians  under  subjection  for  a  long  time 
after  this  battle,  which  was  known  by  the  name  of  Cath  Criche  Carbury 
[i.e.,  the  Battle  of  the  Territory  of  Carbury]." 

The  words  of  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  are  :  <f  The  battle  of  Magh-Diughbha 


84  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


true  the  Annals  of  Kilronan  and  the  Annals  of  Boyle  record 
a  victory — "  ubi  multi  cecidenmt  "  * — the  next  following  year, 
gained  by  Roderic  O'Conor  and  his  son,  Conor  Maenmoi,  over 
Donough,  son  of  Donnell  Midhech  O'Conor  and  O'Muldory ;  but 
this  could  be  only  an  insignificant  affair,  if  it  happened  at  all,  as 
the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  are  altogether  silent  upon  it. 
Anyhow,  it  did  not  reverse  or  undo  the  result  of  Oath  Criche 


was  gained  over  the  sons  of  Turlough  More  O'Conor  by  Flaherty  O'Muldory, 
King  of  Cinel  Connell  (and  of,  it  is  said,  '  the  battle  of  the  royal  heirs  '),  in 
which  were  slain  Brian  Luighnech  and  Maghnus  ;  and  the  three  sons  of  Hugh, 
son  of  Turlough  O'Conor,  viz.  :  Melaghlin,  Murray,  and  Murtough ;  and 
Hugh,  grandson  of  Hugh,  son  of  Rory,  King  of  the  West  of  Connaught ;  and 
Donough,  son  of  Brian  O'Fallon,  et  alii  nobiles  et  ignobiles  cum  eis  (Donough, 
son  of  Donnell  Midhech  O'Conor,  it  was  that  brought  Flaherty  O'Muldory  to 
defend  the  territory  of  Carbury  for  himself).  And  the  bodies  of  those  nobles 
were  conveyed,  after  their  deaths,  to  Cloonmacnoise,  and  interred  in  the 
sepulchre  of  the  nobles  of  their  ancestors." 

In  the  Annals  of  Boyle  we  have  only  this  short  entry  on  the  subject  :  1181— 
"  Battle  of  the  kings'  presumptive." 

In  commenting  on  this  passage,  in  his  History  of  Ireland  and  Annals  of 
Boyle  (Vol.  II.,  p.  306),  Mr.  D'Alton  says :  "The  sons  of  King  Roderic  were 
defeated  in  this  bloody  battle  ;"  but  it  was  not  the  sons  of  Roderic,  but  the 
sons  of  Turlough  More,  Roderic's  father,  who  sustained  the  defeat. 
It  is  to  this  battle  the  Book  of  Fenagh  refers  in  the  lines : — 
"  Greater  than  Mughron's  death  will  be 
The  battle  of  the  kings  in  Cairbre, 
The  host  of  Conall  will  triumphant  be, 
After  inflicting  slaughter  upon  us." 

—The  Book  of  Fenagh.    By  W.  M.  Hennessy 

and  D.  H.  Kelly,  p.  279. 

The  right  application  of  these  lines  has  not  been  pointed  out  before. 
King  Turlogh  O'Conor  was  married  at  least  three  times ;  first,  to  Tailtin, 
daughter  of  Murrough  O'Melaghlin,  who  died  in  1128  ;  secondly,  to 
Deryorgilla,  daughter  of  Donel  O'Lochlan,  who  died  at  Armagh,  while  on 
a  ^pilgrimage  there,  in  1151;  and  thirdly,  to  Dubhchoblach,  daughter  of 
O'Mulrony,  of  Moylurg,  ancestor  of  the  MacDermots.  His  sons  were— 
Maelisa,  Abbot  of  Roscommou  ;  Hugh  Dall,  Teige  Aluin,  Hugh,  Cathal,  DonaJ, 
Roderick,  King  of  Ireland;  Brian  Luighnech,  ancestor  of  the  O'Connors 
Sligo;  Brian  Brefnech,  Manus,  Lochlaun,  Murtough  Muimnecb,  Donough, 
Maelseachlaiun,  Teige  Fidnacha,  Cathal  Migaran,  two  Conors,  Dermod,  Donal, 
Maurice,  Teige  Dairen,  and  Murchadh  Finn. 

*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1182.     "A  victory  was  gained  by  Rory  O'Conor 

over  O'Muldory,  ubi  multi  cecidenmt." 


HISTORY   OF  SLtGO.  85 

Carbury,  for  O'Muldory  continued  to  dominate  Carbury,*  and 
the  O'Connors  (Sligo)  to  live  on  in  obscurity  just  as  before. 
The  place  where  those  O'Connors  lived  after  the  defeat  of  Cath 
Criche  Carbury  is  nowhere  stated  ;  but  the  writer,  after  the 
most  diligent  investigation,  is  quite  satisfied  that  it  was  in  the 
district  of  Castletown,  on  the  slopes  of  Benbulben,  where  we 
find  them  when  they  emerge  again  into  notice.f  Here  they 
retired  after  the  battle,  and  here  they  remained. 

Of  Andrias,  the  son  of  Brian  Luighnech,  nothing  is  told  in  our 
annals  ;  but  Teige,  the  son,  or  the  grandson,  {  of  Andrias,  is 
represented  as  a  prominent  figure  in  the  movements  of  the 
times.  In  the  conflict  for  the  kingship  of  Connaugbt  between 
Catbal  and  Manus,  the  sons  of  Conor  Roe  and  grandsons  of 
Murtough  Muimnech,  Teige  sided  with  the  latter,  and  fought 
against  Cathal  in  the  battle  of  Collooney,  and  lost  in  that 
engagement  his  son,  slain  by  Neal  Gealbuy  O'Conor,  §  who,  in 
turn,  fell,  the  following  year,  at  the  hand  of  the  enraged  father.  j| 
This  Teige,  who  had  for  wife  Sabia,  daughter  of  Hugh  Buy 
O'Neil,  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  and  died  a  Gray  Friar,  in 
the  abbey  of  Boyle,  where  he  had  retired  and  assumed  the 
religious  habit  a  short  time  before  his  death.f 

The  only  male  issue  of  Teige  O'Connor  and  Sabia  O'Neil  was 
Donnell,  who,  though  a  very  bold  and  brave  man,  is  still  more 
remarkable  for  the  exploits  of  his  sons  than  for  his  own.  His 
death,  as  was  the  usual  fate  of  Irish  chiefs  at  that  period,  came 
from  the  sword,  and,  another  circumstance  characteristic  of  the 
times,  by  the  hand  of  a  relation.  The  Annals  of  Loch.  Ce 
contains  the  following  lively  account  of  his  death  and  burial, 


*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1187,  1188. 

f  See  account  of  Castletown,  in  Parish  of  Drumcliff. 

£  Called  Teige,  son  of  Andrias,  in  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1301 ;  but  in  the  same 
Annals,  under  the  year  1308,  the  genealogy  is,  Donnell,  sou  of  Teige,  son  of 
Brian,  son  of  Andrias. 

§  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1291. 

||  Ibid.,  1292. 

IF  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1307. 


80  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


which  casts  a  flood  of  light  on  the  ideas  and  manners  of  the 
opening  years  of  the  thirteenth  century : — "  Donal  [son  of 
Teige],  son  of  Brian,  son  of  Andrias,  son  of  Brian  Luighnech, 
son  of  Turlough  More  O'Conor,  Tanist  of  all  Connaught,  and 
the  royal  heir  of  greatest  property  and  wealth,  of  greatest 
hospitality  and  prowess,  of  greatest  sovereignty  and  possessions, 
that  was  in  Connaught  (for  the  extent  of  Lhis  land  was  from 
Corr-sliabh-na-Seghsa  to  Cael-uisce),  was  slain  in  an  encounter 
with  Hugh  Brefnech,  son  of  Cathal  Eoe  O'Conor.  And  the 
person  who  wounded  him  was  Dermod,  son  of  Simon-na-Tragha. 
And  God  was  merciful  to  him,  for  he  lived  that  night,  and 
until  he  saw  the  priest  and  received  the  Body  of  Christ  and 
unction,  on  the  morrow ;  after  which  he  died.  And  his  body 
was  then  taken  to  Corrsliabh  (the  Curlews),  and  there  was  not 
taken  with  a  dead  body,  in  later  times,  [such  a  quantity  of 
droves,  and  garments,  and  cattle,  of  cavalry,  and  of  kernes,  as 
were  taken  in  this  procession  with  him  to  his  sepulchre ;  and 
his  remains  were  nobly  and  honourably  interred  in  the  mon- 
astery of  the  Buill  (Boyle)."* 

It  may  seem  strange  to  find  "  droves,  and  garments,  and 
cattle,"  figuring  in  a  funeral  procession,  but  they  were  intended 
as  offerings  for  the  monks  of  Boyle,  and  the  poor  depending  on 
the  monastery;  for  it  was  usual,  from  the  earliest  times,  with 
chieftains  and  princes  to  give  such  alms  for  the  good  of  the 
soul.  The  Chronicon  Scotorum  supplies  us  with  an  early  and 
remarkable  example  of  this  liberality  in  its  obituary,  under  the 
year  1065,  of  "Hugh  O'Conor,  the  champion  of  the  west  of  the 
world,  the  Cuchulain  of  the  Gael,  the  flood  of  dignity  and 
nobility  of  Erinn,  and  the  man  who  was  wont  to  give  the  most 
of  food  and  clothing,  of  gold  and  cows  for  his  soul  in  Erinn;'7 

*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1307.  The  obituary  of  the  Four  Masters  omits  all 
reference  to  the  funeral,  and  runs  thus  :  "  Donnell,  son  of  Teige,  son  of  Brian, 
son  of  Andrias,  son  of  Brian  Luighnech,  who  was  son  of  Turlough  Mor  O'Conor, 
Tanist  of  Connaught,  a  man  of  great  prowess  and  hospitality,  who  was 
universally  esteemed,  was  slain  by  Hugh  Brefnech,  the  son  of  Cathal  Roe 
O'Conor." 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  87 


and  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  has  another  striking 
instance  of  it,  under  the  year  1214,  where,  after  recording  the 
death  of  Manus  O'Conor,  it  adds,  "  He  was  buried  outside  the 
door  of  the  church  of  Fenagh ;  and  three  times  the  full  of  Clog- 
na-Biogh,  together  with  thirty  horses,  were  given  as  an  offering 
for  his  soul."  Princes  sometimes  made  similar  presents  to 
learned  men  and  poets,  as  we  see  in  Annals  of  Four  Masters, 
under  the  year  1338. 

After  making  full  allowance  for  any  exaggeration  that  might 
be  found  in  the  language  of  the  passage  quoted  from  the  Annals 
of  Loch  Ce,  it  is  still  clear  from  it,  that  Donnell  O'Connor  was  a 
chief  of  great  possessions  and  power  for  his  time ;  and,  it  may 
well  excite  surprise,  how  his  family  were  able  to  acquire  such 
wealth  and  position,  considering  the  comparatively  retired  life 
which  they  had  led.  But  their  flourishing  condition  may 
perhaps  be  traced  to  the  neutral  attitude  they  took  after  Cath- 
Criche-Carbury ;  for  while  other  branches  of  the  great  Sil- 
Murray  family  (the  O'Conors  of  Connaught),  .threw  themselves 
into  all  the  warlike  movements  around  them,  and  lost  generally 
more  than  they  gained  by  incursions  and  conflicts,  the  descend- 
ants of  Brian  Luighnech,  cured  of  all  present  ambition  by  the 
disaster  of  Magh  Duibha,  and  acquiescing  wisely  in  their  defeat, 
devoted  themselves  to  the  acquiring  and  multiplying  of  flocks 
and  herds,  and  indue  time  reaped,  in  the  acquisition  of  immense 
wealth,  the  reward  for  which  they  laboured.  Wealth  generally 
brings  with  it  power  and  the  consciousness  of  power ;  and  the 
descendants  of  Brian  Luighnech,  now  feeling  themselves  well 
able  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  country,  threw  themselves  into 
the  contests  of  the  day  with  an  energy  all  the  greater  for  their 
former  inaction.  Nor  would  they  have  been  able  to  continue 
the  pacific  life  they  had  been  leading,  even  if  they  were  disposed 
to  do  so ;  for  their  innumerable  cattle  naturally  excited  the 
cupidity  and  predatory  attacks  of  powerful  neighbours,  at  a 
time  when  men  felt  little  scruple  in  appropriating  everything 
they  could  seize  and  secure  with  the  strong  hand.  And,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  to  rescue  their  cattle,  and  punish  the 


88  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


marauders,  that  Teige,  and  his  son  Donnell,  first  reappear  after 
their  temporary  effacement.* 

The  time  at  which  the  O'Connors  re-entered  public  life  was 
very  favourable  for  them  ;  for  it  was  much  easier  then  to  rise  to 
power  in  Carbury  than  it  had  been  at  any  moment  since  the 
death  of  Brian  Luighnech.  The  two  powerful  English  families 
that  had  been  successively  masters  of  it — the  MacCostellos  and 
the  Gerald ines — were  no  longer  in  the  way.  Gilbert  MacCostello, 
to  secure  the  territory  for  himself,  had  erected,  in  1211,f  a 
castle  at  Gael  Uisge  or  Belleek,  with  the  sanction  and  co-oper- 
ation of  John  de  Gray,  the  excommunicated  bishop  of  Norwich, 
who  was  King  John's  Lord  Justice  of  Ireland  at  the  time.  But 
MacCostello  was  slain  in  the  castle,  the  following  year,  and  the 
building  itself  was  burned  to  the  ground.^  Gilbert's  inheritance 
passed  on  to  Philip  MacCostello,  for  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  under  the  year  1214,  state  that  "  Carbury  was  then  the 
possession  of  Philip  MacCostello  ;  "  but  being  unable,  without 
castle  or  stronghold,  to  maintain  his  footing  against  the  attacks 
of  the  O'Rorkes  and  neighbouring  chiefs,  he  abandoned  Carbury 
about  this  time. 

The  Geraldines  kept  their  hold  much  longer  than  the 
MacCostellos  had  done,  and  might,  perhaps,  have  held  on  in 
Carbury  to  the  present  day,  as  in  Kildare,  if  they  had  not  come 
into  collision  with  the  all-powerful  Red  Earl,  and  the  authority 
of  England  which  supported  his  cause. 

The  movements  of  the  O'Connors  were  facilitated  also  by  the 

*  "  A  great  depredation  was  committed  by  Hugh,  the  son  of  Cathal  0' Conor, 
and  the  Clann  Murtougb,  upon  Teige,  the  son  of  Andrias,  in  Magh  Ene." — 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1301. 

"  Dermot  O'Flanagan,  chief  of  Tuathratha,  his  two  sons,  and  many  others, 
along  with  them,  were  slain  at  Bunduff,  by  some  of  the  household  of  Donnell, 
son  of  Teige  0 'Conor,  who  had  pursued  them,  to  deprive  them  of  a  prey  which 
they  were  carrying  off  from  Magh  Ene." — Ibid.,  1303. 

t  "An  army  was  led  by  the  Connacians,  at  the  summons  of  the  English 
bishop  and  Gilbert  MacCostello  to  Assaroe  ;  and  they  erected  a  castle  at  Cael 
Uisge." 

£  "  Gilbert  MacCostello  was  slain  in  the  castle  of  Cael  Uisge  ;  and  the 
castle  itself  was  burned  by  O'Hegny." 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  89 


state  of  ruin,  in  which  the  castle  of  Sligo  lay,  and  which  lasted 
from  1294  to  1310,  when,  as  the  Four  Masters  and  the  Annals 
of  Loch  Ce  state,  "  the  castle  of  Sligo  was  erected,"  or,  as  the 
Annals  of  Clonmacnoise  have  it,  "  was  repeared  (repaired)  and 
made,"  by  the  Red  Earl.  Another  factor,  in  their  rise  or 
revival,  was  the  feud  which  arose  in  1295,  between  the  two 
sons  of  Donnell  Oge  O'Donnell — Hugh  and  Turlough — and 
which,  lasting  through  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  wasted  the  strength  of  that  powerful  family  in  a 
fratricidal  contest. 

Nowhere  can  one  learn  better  the  truth  of  the  maxim,  that 
union  is  strength,  than  in  the  annals  of  Ireland  ;  for  the  reader 
of  those  annals  sees  in  every  page,  that  the  rise  or  fall  of  native 
chieftains  depends  almost  exclusively  on  the  union  or  the 
division  of  the  members  of  their  families.  If  the  members  are 
united  with  one  another,  and  with  the  chief,  he  is  able  to  hold 
his  own,  whatever  other  enemies  he  may  have  to  contend 
against ;  but  if  the  members  turn  on  each  other,  or  on  him,  he  is 
sure  to  sink,  whatever  may  be  his  talents  or  resources.  It  is  thus 
the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  supplies  a  most  suggestive 
commentary  to  such  scripture  texts  as  "  Every  kingdom  divided 
against  itself  shall  be  made  desolate;  and  every  city  or  house 
divided  against  itself  shall  not  stand."  "  And  a  man's  enemies 
shall  be  they  of  his  own  household/' 

And  this  union  or  division  reacts  on  rivals,  who  wax  in 
strength  as  the  opposing  chief  wanes  in  domestic  or  family  sup- 
port, and  wane  as  he  waxes.  The  English  turned  this  condition 
of  things  to  account  so  effectually  that  they  gained  more  by  it 
than  by  their  own  prowess.  Strongbow  owed  less  to  his  knights 
than  to  Dermod  McMurrough ;  the  Fitzgeralds,  de  Burgos, 
Berminghams,  and  Costellos,  were  equally  indebted  to  native 
aid  for  their  successes  in  Connaught ;  and  if  we  may  anticipate, 
Lord  Mountjoy,  who  did  more  to  make  Ireland  amenable  to 
English  rule,  than  any  Englishman  who  had  preceded  him  from 
the  invasion,  would  never  have  gathered  such  laurels  but  for  the 
co-operation,  covert  or  open,  of  the  Queen's  O'Donnell,  the 


90  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 

Queen's  O'Neil,  the  Queen's  Maguire,  and  the  Queen's  other 
Irish  chieftains. 

The  occasion  being  thus  opportune  for  the  O'Connors  Sligo, 
the  men  were  not  wanting.  For  years  that  family  had  produced 
a  succession  of  chiefs  endowed  with  all  those  high  and  command- 
ing qualities  which  go  to  form  the  hero ;  and  though  enemies 
multiplied,  and  difficulties  and  dangers  thickened*  as  time 
advanced,  those  chiefs  triumphed  over  all  dangers  and  diffi- 
culties, and  were  more  than  a  match  for  their  multitudinous 
enemies.  In  a  united  but  constantly  diminishing  body,  as  one 
or  other  of  the  brothers  came  to  a  violent  end,  the  seven 
sons  of  Donnell  O'Connor — Rory,  Manus,  Cathal,  Murtough, 
Donough,  John,  and  Teige — sometimes  by  themselves,  and 
sometimes  in  alliance  with  others,  took  an  active  and  leading 
part  in  all  the  public  transactions  of  the  time  in  Connaught. 

After  dealing  by  themselves  with  their  less  powerful  enemies, 
inflicting,  near  Ballysadare,  a  severe  defeat  on  the  English  of 
Tireragh  and  Leyney,  and  avenging  the  death  of  their  father 
in  the  blood  of  its  perpetrators,*)-  they  joined  Felim  O'Connor, 
the  king  of  Connaught,  MacDermot,  and  the  English  ;  and 
their  united  forces  proceeded  through  Corran  and  Leyney,  and 
thus  brought  unspeakable  evils  on  the  latter  district ;  for  their 
enemies,  Rory  O'Conor,  and  Teige  O'Kelly  went — to  borrow 
the  language  of  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce — "  in  pursuit  of  Felim 


'  *  A  great  depredation  was  committed  by  Mulrony  McDermot,  on  the  sons 
of  Donnell  O'Connor,  in  the  territory  of  Carbury.  Another  great  depredation 
was  committed  upon  them  by  the  Clann  Murtough,  who  had  concluded  a  peace 
with  them,  and  given  them  hostages,  but  afterwards  acted  treacherously 
towards  them.  Another  great  depredation  was  committed  by  Brian  O'Dowd, 
and  Foreigners  of  Leyney,  and  the  Ui-Fiachrach,  on  the  same  sons  of  Donnell 
O'Connor."— Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  and  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1308.  These 
entries  are  in  immediate  succession  in  the  Annals. 

t  "  Hugh  Ballad,  son  of  Cathal,  son  of  Conor  Roe,  son  of  Murtough  Muinnech, 
was  slain  in  treachery  by  Cathal,  son  of  Donnell  O'Connor,  and  Hugh,  son  of 
Art,  and  Diarmaid,  son  of  Simon-na-tragha  were  also  slain  by  them  in  revenge 
for  their  father  having  been  killed  by  Diarmaid."— A nnala  of  Loch  Ce. 
—An.  1315. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  91 


and  MacDermot,  and  the  tribes  that  were  with  them,  to  Leter- 
Leyney,  and  the  slopes  of  Slieve  Gamh,  and  to  Glen-Fath- 
roimh  (1315)  in  particular,  where  they  killed  many  thousand 
cows,  and  sheep,  and  horses ;  and  they  stripped  gentlewomen, 
and  destroyed  small  children,  and  little  ones,  on  this  journey  ; 
and  never  during  the  memory  of  the  people,  was  so  much  cattle 
uselessly  destroyed  in  one  spot."  Later  on  we  shall  identify 
this  spot. 

While  the  sons  of  Donnell  O'Connor  were  engaged  in  those 
forays,  Hugh  O'Donnell,  chief  of  Tirconnell,  at  the  instigation  of 
his  wife,  who  was  daughter  of  Manus  O'Conor,  against  whom 
the  sons  of  Donnell  were  then  in  conflict,  invaded  Carbury,  and 
"  threw  down  "  the  castle  of  Sligo,  in  which,  according  to  the 
annalists,  "great  spoils  were  found."*  The  injury  inflicted  by 
her  husband  on  the  territory  of  the  sons  of  Donnell  not  being 
enough  to  satisfy  this  furious  Amazon,  she  called  together  her 
relatives,  and  other  forces,  and  at  their  head  attacked  the 
churches  of  Drumcliff,  and  plundered  their  "  Comarbs  and 
clerics."!  Adding  murder  to  sacrilege,  this  wicked  woman 
compassed  the  death  of  Rory,  the  eldest  of  the  seven  brothers, 
by  paying  assassins  to  "  remove  "  him,  though  he  had,  unlike 
his  brothers,  renounced  his  claims  to  Carbury,  and  recognized 
O'Donnell  as  the  Lord  paramount  of  the  district.^ 

But  the  death  of  Rory,  and  of  the  next  in  age,  Manus,  who 
fell  in  the  disastrous  battle  of  Athenry,  rather  helped  than 
harmed  the  O'Connor  family,  as  it  brought  to  the  front  Cathal, 


*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce— An.  1315. 

t  Annals  of  Loch  Ce— An.  1315.  The  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise  relate  thus 
these  occurrences.  "  Hugh  O'Donnell,  Prince  of  Tirconnell,  came  to  the  lands 
of  Carbrey,  in  Connaught,  and  destroyed  all  that  country  by  the  advice  of  his 
wife,  the  daughter  of  Manus  O'Conor,  and  came  herself  with  a  great  route  of 
gallowglasses,  and  took  all  the  spoyles  of  the  churches  of  Drumkleiw,  without 
respect  to  church  or  churchman  of  that  place." 

J  And  Dervorgil,  daughter  of  Manus  O'Conor,  retained  a  band  of  gallow- 
glasses, and  gave  them  a  reward  for  the  killing  of  Rory,  son  of  Dounell 
O'Conor,  who  was  subsequently  slain  by  them  in  violation  of  the  relies  of  Tir- 
connell.—Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1316. 


92  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


the  third  eldest,  who  was  probably  the  ablest  and  bravest  man 
in  all  Ireland  at  the  time.  With  his  brothers  he  lived  at  Fasa- 
choille — the  waste  of  the  wood, — now  Castletown,  in  Carbury, 
and  watched  over  that  territory,  a  lion  in  vigilance  and  daring. 
Encouraged,  probably,  by  the  death,  of  Rory  and  Manus,  Meyler 
de  Exeter  and  some  of  the  descendants  of  Murtough  Muimhnech 
made  an  incursion  into  Carbury;  but  the  lion  sprang  from  his 
lair,  pounced  on  the  invaders,  and  strewed  the  banks  of  the 
Methenagh,  or  Drumcliff  river,  with  the  dead  bodies  of 
De  Exeter,  Donneli  O'Conor  Muimnech,  and  several  of  their 
followers.*  He  was  next  attacked  by  all  the  chiefs  of  Con- 
naught,  including  Turlogh,  King  of  Connaught,  Mulrony 
MacDermot,  Prince  of  Moylurg,  Ualgarg  O'Rorke,  Lord  of 
BrefFney,  O'Kelly,  chief  of  Hy  Many,  and  Tomultagh 
MacDonogh,  Lord  of  Tirerrill.  Finding  they  had  no  ordinary 
person  to  deal  with,  the  chiefs  formed  this  vast  coalition,  to 
make  sure  of  crushing  their  formidable  adversary.  In  this 
crisis  Cathal  played  the  part  of  a  statesman  as  well  as  of  a  hero. 
On  his  enemies  reaching  his  neighbourhood,  he  offered  them 
liberal  terms  if  they  desisted  from  their  undertaking,  and 
retired  in  peace ;  but  these  terms  they  disdainfully  rejected, 
convinced  that  they  had  him  completely  in  their  power. 
Thrown  back  thus  on  himself,  he  faltered  not,  nor  shut  himself 
up  in  his  fortress,  but,  making  little  of  the  overwhelming 
numbers  of  the  enemy,  came  forth  from  his  entrenchments, 
delivered  battle  in  the  open,  and  inflicted  a  disastrous  defeat, 
slaying  numbers  both  of  leaders  and  followers,  and  putting  the 
rest  to  a  disgraceful  rout,  t 


*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1317. 

r  t  A  great  army  was  assembled  by  Mulrony  McDermot,  King  of  Moylurg, 
and  the  noblest  who  were  in  this  army  were  Turlough  O'Conor,  King  of  Con- 
naught,  and  Ualgarg  O'Rorke,  King  of  Breffney  and  Conmaicne,  and  Conor 
O'Kelly,  King  of  Hy-Maine,  and  Tomultagh  McDonogh,  Lord  of  Tirerrill. 
And  they  all  proceeded  to  attack  Cathal,  son  of  Donneli  O'Connor,  to  Fasa- 
coille.  And  Cathal  offered  them  liberal  terms  on  condition  that  they  would 
not  go  to  him  j  but  they  did  not  accept  them  from  him.  And  these  nobles 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Carbury  being  now  secure,  Cathal  assumed  the  offensive; 
and,  sallying  forth  from  Fasa-coille,  with  his  victorious  army, 
first,  harried  Moylurg,  to  punish  McDermot,  and  next,  deposing 
Turlogh,  King  of  Connaught,  seated  himself  in  the  vacant 
throne,  and  ruled  the  province  as  King,  from  1318  to  1324, 
when  he  was  slain  by  Turlogh  O'Conor,  the  deposed  prince. 
All  Cathal's  actions  prove  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  com- 
manding talents  and  indomitable  courage;  and  if  he  sometimes 
practised  deceit  and  guile  against  his  enemies,  as  cannot  be 
gainsayed,  this  only  proves,  that  be  was  no  better,  in  this  respect, 
than  his  contemporaries,  at  a  time  when  Irish  chiefs  are  con- 
stantly represented  by  our  annalists  as  acting  "per  dolum"  or 
treacherously. 

Two,  at  least,  of  the  sons  of  Cathal,  King  of  Connaught, 
Kory  and  Cathal  Oge,  inherited  their  father's  warlike  qualities, 
and  abilities.  Bory  resided  at  Fasa-coille,  and  knew  how,  like 
his  father,  to  defend  that  fortress;  for,  being  attacked  by 
Ualgarg  O'Eorke,  he  not  only  repelled  the  attack,  but  over- 
taking O'Rorke  at  Calry,  defeated  him  in  battle,  slew  all  his 
gallowglasses,  and  put  himself  to  death,  by  burning  over  his 
head  the  church  of  Killery,  in  which  he  had  taken  sanctuary.* 
Opposed  by  a  formidable  coalition  of  enemies,  the  Clan- 
Murtough,  Nial  O'Donnell,  the  MacDermots,  and  all  the 
English  and  Irish  they  could  get  to  aid  them,  Rory  gave  as 


advanced  to  the  very  middle  of  his  fortress ;  but  this  occurred  not  through 
flight  or  timidity  on  his  part.  And  Cathal  advanced  furiously,  bravely,  against 
them  from  out  of  the  houses,  and  encountered  them.  And  Conor  O'Kelly, 
King  of  Hy-Maine,  was  slain,  and  Brian,  son  of  Turlough  O'Conor,  heir  to  the 
sovereignty  of  Connaught,  and  Brian,  son  of  Manus,  and  Cathal,  son  of  Gilla- 
Christ  MacDermot,  et  alia  multi  Mobiles  et  ignobiles,  were  either  wounded  or 
killed.— Annals  of  Loch  Ce— An.  1316. 

*  Odo  O'Roirk  Rodei  icum  filius  (recte  filium)  Cathaldi  0'  Conor  apud  Fasa- 
coillead  depredatus,  in  templum  Cille-hoires  confugit,  et  templo  incenso 
occiditur. — Book  of  Lecan,  in  O'Dono van's  Four  Masters — An.  1346.  The 
Four  Masters  say,  "  O'Rourke  was  afterwards  pursued  by  Rory  O'Conor  and  the 
Clann  Donogh,  and  was  killed  by  Mulrony  MacDonogh.  This  was  a  lamentable 
deed." 


94  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


much  trouble  as  he  received;  and  though  defeated  on  one 
occasion  with  great  slaughter  at  Collooney,  and  driven,  on 
another  occasion,  into  his  fortress  of  Bally  mote,  he  was  still  able 
to  burn  MacDermot's  stronghold,  and  to  hold  his  own  against  all 
his  enemies,  till  he  was  treacherously  slain  in  1350,atBricklieve, 
by  the  sons  of  Farrel  McDonogh,  at  the  instigation  of  Hugh 
O'Conor,  King  of  Connaught,  who  no  doubt  felt  ill  at  ease,  as 
long  as  so  formidable  a  competitor  for  his  throne  as  Bory  lived. 
Cathal  Oge,  another  son  of  King  Cathal,  was  still  more  con- 
spicuous than  Rory  for  abilities  and  exploits.  Coming  into  notice 
for  the  first  time  in  1355,  when  he  joined  Mac  William  Burke 
who  was  then  at  enmity  with  the  English  of  West  Connaught, 
his  career  till  his  death  in  1362,  was  a  continued  series  of  bril- 
liant victories  without  a  single  defeat  or  check.  In  1355,  he 
burned  the  town  of  Tuam  in  spite  of  the  English  ;  in  1360,  he 
slew  Dermot,  son  of  Donogh  Reagh  McDermot,  and  overran 
Tyrawley  with  an  army,  "destroying  many  of  its  houses  and 
churches;"*  in  1361,  having  been  set  upon  by  MacWilliam, 
MacFeorais,  and  the  English  of  all  Connaught,  who  "  ravaged 
and  wasted  Leyney  and  Tireragh,"  he  led  an  army  into  the 
enemy's  territories,  "plundered  McFeorais'  and  MacHubert 
Burke's  people,  and  spoiled  and  destroyed  the  whole  country  ;"f 
and  in  1362,  he  and  the  Zing  of  Connaught  captured  the  castle 
of  Ballintuber,  and,  invading  Meath,  which  belonged  to  the 
English,  "desolated  it  by  fire,  burned  the  church  of  Kilkenny, 
and  fourteen  other  churches  in  which  the  English  had  garrison,":}: 

*  An  army  was  led  by  Cathal  Oge  to  Sir  Edmond  Burke,  by  which  he 
plundered  Mac  William's  country  as  far  as  the  castle  of  Lehinch.— 0'  Flaherty 
in  O'Donovan's  Four  Masters,  1360.  Note. 

t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1361. 

$  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1362.  The  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise  give  the 
following  version  of  these  events  : — "A.D.  1362,  Hugh  MacFelym  O'Connor,  King 
of  Connaught,  and  Cahal  Oge  O'Connor,  marched  with  their  forces  to  Meath, 
burnt  and  destroyed  all  places  where  they  came,  to  (as  far  as)  the  hill  of  Cnock- 
Aysde  in  Kynaleagh.  Of  that  journey  they  burnt  fourteen  churches,  and  the 
church  of  Kilkenny  in  Machaire  Kwyorchnie,  and  committed  many  outrages 
upon  the  English  of  Meath,  and  were  so  many  that  it  were  hard  to  recount 
them ;  returned  at  last  to  their  houses  in  safety." 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  95 


and  did  the  English  many  other   injuries,  after  which  they 
returned  in  safety  and  triumph  to  their  homes. 

But  the  most  remarkable  perhaps  of  his  victories  was  that 
which  he  acquired  in  1356,  over  the  Cinel  Connell  or  O'Donnells. 
Cathal  Oge  was  the  first  of  the  family,  since  the  battle  of  Criche 
Carbury,  that  dared  to  measure  swords  with  the  Cinel  Connell ; 
and  his  victory  over  them  at  Ballyshannon  was  so  decisive,  that 
he  became  by  it  chief  of  Tirconnell,  as  is  recorded  in  the  Annals 
of  Ulster  :  a  fact  which  the  Four  Masters,  with  less  regard  for 
the  claims  of  history  than  for  the  vanity  of  the  O'Donnells,  have 
the  weakness  to  suppress.*  The  omission  is  the  more  reprehen- 
sible, as  the  Four  Masters  should  have  little  sympathy  with 
those  chiefs  of  Tirconnell  who  brought  the  defeat  and  humiliation 
on  themselves  and  on  their  country  by  their  selfish  internecine 
quarrels.  Had  they  been  less  selfish  and  more  patriotic,  so  as 
to  unite  in  defence  of  Tirconnell,  they  might  have  defied  Cathal 
Oge  and  all  Connaught,  but  instead  of  union,  dissensions  existed 
among  them  to  such  an  extent,  in  the  time  of  Cathal  Oge,  and 
for  more  than  half  a  century  previous,  that  all  the  chiefs,  who 
ruled  Tirconnell  during  that  period,  either  obtained  the  chief 
power,  or  maintained  it  when  reached,  by  the  murder  of  a  brother 
or  other  near  relative.  In  1303,  Hugh,  the  son  of  Donnell  Oge 
O'Donnell,  became  chief  by  slaying  Turlough,  of  Cnoc-an- 
Madhma.  At  the  close  of  Hugh's  long  rule  in  1333,  his  two 
sons,  Conor  and  Art,  were  rivals  for  his  position,  and  Conor 
secured  the  place  for  himself  by  despatching  Art.  Conor,  in 
turn,  fell  in  1342,  by  the  hand  of  another  brother,  Nial,  who, 
himself,  was  treacherously  and  murderously  slain  by  "  Manus 
Meabhlach  (the  deceitful)  O'Donnell,  his  kinsman,"  f  most  pro- 

*  O'DoDOvan  in  his  edition  of  the  Four  Masters,  anno  1369,  writes  in  a  note, 
"  Cathal  Oge,  the  son  of  O'Conor  Sligo,  made  great  efforts  to  conquer  Tirconnell 
at  this  period;  and  it  is  stated  in  the  Dublin  copy  of  the  Annals  of  Ulster  under 
the  year  1356  (recte  1359)  that  he  became  prince  of  Tirconnell.  The  Four 
Masters,  however,  who  had  the  Annals  of  Ulster  before  them,  have  suppressed 
this  passage,  thinking  that  it  would  derogate  from  the  glory  of  the  O'Donnells. 
This  passage  is  given  from  the  Annals  of  Lecan. 

t  Annala  of  the  Four  Masters,  1348. 


96  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


bably  in  the  interest  of  Aengus  (the  son  of  Conor)  O'Donnell, 
who  assumed  the  chieftaincy.  In  due  time  Aengus  met  the  fate 
of  his  predecessors,  being  killed  per  dolum  by  Manus  O'Donnell,* 
apparently  a  different  person  from  Manus  the  Deceitful,  the 
murderer  of  Nial.  Notwithstanding  the  tragic  end  of  all  those 
O'Donnells,  Aengus's  succession  was  as  eagerly  sought,  and  as 
fiercely  contested,  as  if  it  were  the  presage  of  a  long  and  happy 
life,  and  not  the  sure  precursor  of  a  speedy  and  ignoble  death. 
Felim,  the  son  of  Hugh  O'Donnell,  and  John,  the  son  of  Conor, 
were  the  rivals  this  time ;  and  though  'Felim  became  the 
O'Donnell,  John  continued  in  opposition  till  he  slew  him,  and 
obtained  the  coveted  prize  in  !S56.f  John,  too,  had  to  pay  the 
penalty  of  his  ambition,  but,  more  fortunate  than  his  prede- 
cessors, who  lost  their  lives  in  family  feuds,  he  had  the  honour  of 
falling  in  the  battle-field,  while  trying  to  repel  the  invasion  of 
Cathal  Oge  O'Connor.  It  was  well  for  the  O'Donnells  that 
Cathal  Oge  had  so  much  on  hands  in  other  places  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life;  for  whether  he  could,  or  could  not,  subject 
Tirconnell  permanently  to  the  O'Connors,  he  would,  at  all  events, 
have  dealt  a  blow  to  the  family  of  O'Donnell,  from  which,  in  their 
divided  condition,  they  might  never  have  been  able  to  recover. 

Cathal  Oge,  on  his  return  from  Meath,  had  to  encounter  an 
enemy  at  Sligo  far  more  formidable  than  any  he  had  met  with, 
north  or  south,  in  his  various  expeditions.  This  was  the  terrible 
plague, {  called  Cluithe  an  Rigli  (the  King's  Game),  apparently, 


*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1352. 

t  Felim,  the  son  of  Hugh,  son  of  Donnell  Oge  O'Donnell,  Lord  of  Tircon- 
nell, was  slain  by  the  son  of  his  own  brother,  viz.,  John,  son  of  Conor  O'Donnell, 
and  John  then  assumed  the  lordship  of  Tirconnell  without  opposition.— Four 
Masters,  1356. 

J  The  pestilential  period  of  the  14th  century,  writes  Sir  William  Wilde,  in 
his  Table  of  Cosmical  Phenomena,  &c.,  published  in  Vol.  I.  of  the  Census  of  Ire- 
land for  the  year  1851,  was  both  in  duration  and  intensity,  the  most  remarkably 
calamitous  in  these  annals.  It  dates  from  1315,  and  lasted  almost  without  inter- 
ruption for  85  years.  It  commenced  with  the  foreign  invasion  of  the  Scots, 
under  Edward  Bruce,  at  a  time  when  the  country  was  labouring  under  the 
double  scourge  of  famine  and  partial  civil  war,  and  its  effects  were  to  increase 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  97 

a  return  of  the  Black  Death,  which  appeared  first  in  Europe, 
towards  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  lasted  at  inter- 
vals to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth,and  is  graphically  described, 
as  to  the  former  period,  in  the  contemporaneous  pages  of 
Boccacio's  II  Decameron,  and,  as  to  the  latter,  in  Pepys'  and 
Evelyn's  Diaries.  Though  this  pestilence  raged  in  all  parts  of 
Ireland  in  1362,  and  great  numbers  fell  by  it,  our  annalists  make 
particular  mention  of  Cathal  Oge,  as  its  principal  victim — a 
circumstance  that  shows  the  high  estimation  in  which  he  was 


the  one  and  render  the  other  general.  Epizootics  succeeded,  followed  by  small 
pox,  then  dearth  again  with  unusual  severity  of  the  seasons  and  intense  frosts, 
accompanied  by  the  first  appearance  of  influenza,  and  an  outbreak  of  the  Bark- 
ing Mania.  Subsequently  appeared  the  Black  Death,  the  King's  Game,  and  the 

third  pestilence The  Black  Death  appeared  in   Ireland  in 

1348,  and  was  described  as  "  a  very  great  pestilence  in  Ireland,  which  had 
before  gone  through  other  countries."  This  was  styled  the  first  pestilence  ;  the 
second  raged  thirteen  years  afterwards,  i.e.  in  1361  or  1332;  the  third  about 
1373  ;  the  fourth  in  1382 ;  and  the  fifth  in  1391.  The  most  succinct  account  of 
this  pestilence  given  is  that  of  Friar  Clyn,  who  says,  "  This  year,  and  chiefly 
in  the  months  of  September  and  October,  great  numbers  of  bishops  and  prelates, 
ecclesiastics  and  religious,  peers  and  others,  and  in  general  people  of  both 
sexes,  flocked  together  by  troops  in  pilgrimage  to  Tachmoling,  insomuch  that 
many  thousands  of  souls  might  be  seen  there  together  for  many  days.  Some 
came  on  the  score  of  devotion,  but  the  greatest  part  for  fear  of  the  pestilence. 
It  first  broke  out  near  Dublin,  at  Howth  and  Dalkey  ;  it  almost  destroyed  and 
laid  waste  the  cities  of  Dublin  and  Drogheda,  insomuch,  that  in  Dublin  alone, 
from  the  beginning  of  August  to  Christmas,  1400  souls  perished.  The  author 
himself,  it  seems,  died  of  this  plague  the  year  following,  of  which  he  had  a  fore- 
sight, for  he  closes  his  Annals  in  1348,  thus,  "And  lest  the  writing  should 
perish  with  the  writer,  and  the  work  fail  with  the  workman,  I  leave  behind  me 
parchment  for  continuing  it ;  if  any  man  should  have  the  good  fortune  to  sur- 
vive this  calamit)',  or  any  one  of  the  race  of  Adam  should  escape  this  pestilence, 

to  continue  what  I  have  begun." The  second  great  plague  in 

King  Edward's  reign  commenced  in  1361  or  1362,  and  continued  during  the 
remainder  of  that  decade  .  .  .  Cluithe  an  Righ,  or  the  King's  Game,  was 
the  name  of  some  epidemic  ....  O'Flaherty  in  a  gloss  upon  the  words, 
Cluithe  an  Righ,  calls  it  ,The  Plague,  "  an  plalgh  ;"  but  it  may  also  have  been 
a  return  of  the  Black  Death,  which  was  especially  epidemic  in  Europe  at  the 
time,  and  has  been  described  by  Boccacio,  and  many  other  eye-witnesses  of  its 
effects.  "The  first  time,"  says  Hecker,  writing  of  its  progress  and  mortality 
in  Europe,"  it  raged  chiefly  among  the  poor,  but  in  the  year  1360,  more  among 
the  higher  classes.  It  also  destroyed  a  great  many  children,  whom  it  had  pre- 
viously spared,  and  but  few  women." 

VOL.  T.  G 


98  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


everywhere  held.  His  obit  is  given  by  the  national  annalists  as 
follows  : — by  the  Four  Masters,  "  Cathal  Oge  O'Conor,  a  Roy- 
damna  of  more  fame,  renown,  strength,  heroism,  hospitality,  and 
prowess,  than  any  in  his  time,  died  of  the  plague  at  Sligo;"  by 
the  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise,  "Cahall  Oge  O'Conor,  the  hardiest 
man,  of  greatest  valour,  of  any  nobleman  in  his  time,  died  of  the 
plague  at  Sligiagh,  the  3rd  of  November ;"  and  by  the  Annals 
of  Loch  Ce,  "  Cathal  Oge  O'Conor,  the  king's  son  of  greatest 
fame,  and  generosity,  and  renown,  and  politeness,  strength,  and 
heroism  in  his  own  time,  died  of  the  plague -in  Sligech,  the  third 
day  after  Allhallow  tide." 

While  Cathal  Oge's  recorded  achievements  were  almost  exclu- 
sively in  war,  or  what  was  then  called  war,  still  his  erection  of  a 
stone  and  mortar  bridge  across  the  river  of  Ballysadare,  one  of 
the  first  structures  of  the  kind  in  Connaught,  if  not  in  Ireland, 
proves  that  his  civil  and  political  talents  were  on  a  par  with  his 
military  abilities,  and  as  much  in  advance  of  those  of  his  contem- 
poraries.* 

It  may  perhaps  be  doubted  whether  he  was  the  official  head 
of  the  O'Connors  of  Carbury  or  Sligo  in  his  day,  though  it  is 
far  more  likely  he  was  not.  If  the  prominence  and  brilliancy  of 
his  career  would  lead  us  to  think  that  he  occupied  that  place, 
the  silence  of  our  annalists  on  the  subject  is  a  stronger  argument 
on  the  other  side  ;  for  had  he  been  chief,  they  would  hardly  have 
failed  to  note  so  important  a  fact,  in  his  obituary.  Anyhow  the 
O'Connors  Sligo  do  not  descend  from  Cathal  Oge,  but  from  his 
uncle,  Murtough,  who  died  in  1329,  "  Lord  of  Carbury,  and  a 
good  materies  of  a  King  of  Connaught."f 

Murtough  is  the  first  of  the  O'Connors,  who  is  styled  in  our 
annals  Lord  of  Carbury;  and  the  head  of  the  family  continued 
to  be  called  Lord  of  Carbury,  or  Lord  of  Carbury  and  Sligo,  up 
to  1536,  when  Teige,  the  chief  of  that  day,  took  the  style  and 

*  A  bridge  of  lime  and  stone  was  built  by  Cathal  O'Conor  across  the  river  of 
Easdara.— Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1360. 

t  Murtough,  the  son  of  Donnell  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Carbury,  and  a  good 
materies  of  a  King  of  Connaught,  died.— Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1329. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  99 


title  of  The  O'Connor  Sligo.  Donnell,  Murtough's  son,  and, 
apparently,  his  immediate  successor  in  the  lordship  of  Carbury, 
must  have  been  very  young — little  more  than  an  infant — at  the 
father's  death,  in  1329,  as  he  survived  until  1395.  There  is 
nothing  known  of  him  during  the  lifetime  of  Cathal  Oge,  but 
his  career  from  the  decease  of  Cathal  Oge  was  a  series  of  brilliant 
achievements  on  all  sides — against  the  O'Donnells  (1339-1390- 
1392),  against  the  MacDermots  of  Mojdurg  (1385),  against  the 
Burkes  of  Tyrawley  (1385-1395),  against  the  Barretts  of 
Mayo  (1386),  and  against  some  of  the  O'Conors  of  Machaire 
Connacht  (1388).  In  his  enterprises  he  was  supported  generally 
by  the  O'Rorkes,  with  whom  he  was  connected  through  his 
wife,  and  by  the  MacDonoghs,  to  whom  he  was  related  by  his 
mother,  who  was  Fefalgia  McDonogh ;  and  with  the  forces  of 
BrefFney,  Tirerrill,  and  Carbury,  at  his  back,  he  feared  no  enemy 
or  combination  of  enemies.  Nemo  me  impune  lacessit  seemed 
to  be  his  motto  ;  and  when  Carbury  was  invaded  on  one  side  by 
O'Donnell,  and  on  the  other  by  Mac  William  Burke,  Donneli 
was  not  slow  to  retaliate,  and  to  give  back  as  good  as  he 
got.  On  one  occasion  indeed — in  1388 — when  Tnrlough  an 
Fhina  O'Donnell,  arriving  at  Sligo  at  the  head  of  an  army, 
plundered  Carbury,  Donnell,  to  save  the  territory  from  further 
mischief,  submitted  to  the  victor,  but  in  less  than  a  year  he 
returned  Turlough's  visit,  demolished  the  castle  of  Kilbarron, 
and  carried  off  the  spoils  of  Tirconnell. 

One  ugly  blot,  however,  the  murder  of  his  cousin  Teige,  son 
of  Manus,  rests  on  the  memory  of  Donnell.  This  Teige  was  a 
brave  and  ambitious  man,  and  contested  with  Donnell  the 
chietainry  of  Carbury.  Two  battles  at  least  took  place  between 
the  rivals;  one  in  Lower  Carbury  in  1365,  in  which  Teige 
defeated  Donnell,  and  the  other  in  1367,  at  Beltra  Strand,  in  the 
parish  of  Ballysadare,*  in  which  Donnell  got  the  better  of  Teige. 


*  The  affair  at  Beltra  was  a  rather  important  engagement.  "  A  victory  was 
gained  by  Donnell,  the  son  of  Mur tough  O'Conor,  the  O'Rourkes,  and  the 
Clann-Doaough,  with  their  retained  kerns,  over  Teige,  the  son  of  Manus,  on 


100  HISTORY  OF   SLTGO. 


As  however  neither  engagement  was  decisive  enough  to  settle 
the  contest  between  the  cousins,  the  territory  in  dispute  was 
divided,  North  Carbury  being  given  to  Teige,  and  South  Car- 
bury,  including  Sligo,  to  Donnell.  Both  parties,  probably,  were 
dissatisfied  with  this  arrangement,  but  it  was  the  friends  of 
Donnell,  and,  no  doubt,  at  Donnell's  instigation,  who  set  them- 
selves to  undo  it.  In  execution  of  this  design,  Teige  had 
been  induced  to  go  on  business  to  Rory,  King  of  Connaught, 
which  however  he  did  not  do  withoutreceivinga  solemn  guarantee 
of  security;  but  still  the  unfortunate  man  had  no  sooner 
appeared  before  the  king  than  he  was  treacherously  seized,  and 
passed  on  to  the  "  tender  mercies"  of  his  mortal  enemy,  Donnell, 
by  whom  he  was  at  once  thrown  into  chains  in  the  Castle  of 
Sligo.  The  moment  Teige  was  imprisoned  Donnell  resumed 
sway  in  all  Carbury  ;  but  feeling  insecure  in  his  ill-gotten  pos- 
sessions, so  long  as  the  right  owner  lived,  even  in  captivity, 
Donnell  in  1372,  butchered  the  defenceless  cousin  in  prison 
with  his  own  hands:  not  being  able,  perhaps,  to  find  any  one 
else  to  do  the  nefarious  deed.*  The  fate  of  Teige  called  forth 
the  deepest  horror  throughout  Ireland,  so  that  the  whole  trans- 
action passed  into  a  proverb,  and  people,  when  they  wished  to 
signify  a  crime  of  transcendent  enormity,  used  to  say,  "  The 
treatment  of  Teige,  the  son  of  Manus  was  not  worse  " — as  if  this 
was  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  evil  doing.f 


Traigh-Eothuile  an  t-Saoir.  The  gallowglasses  of  the  son  of  Manus,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  in  number,  were  slain,  as  were  also  Donnell,  son  of  Sorley, 
Donnell  Oge,  his  son,  the  two  MacSweenys,  the  son  of  the  Bishop  O'Dovida, 
and  William  MacSheehy. — Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1367. 

*  O'Donovan  observes  in  a  note  under  the  year  1372  in  his  edition  of  the 
Four  Masters:  "  It  is  stated  in  the  Dublin  copy  of  the  Annals  of  Ulster,  that 
Donnell  killed  Teige  with  his  own  hand  while  in  confinement,  and  that  the  act 
was  the  most  repulsive  and  abominable  deed  ever  committed  in  Ireland."  To 
this  passage  O'Flaherty  adds  the  following  clause,  from  O'Mulconry  : — "  Ipsius 
Donaldi  manu  confossus,  postquam  ab  anno  1368  detentus  ab  eo  in  vinculis  " — 
stabbed  by  the  hand  of  Donnell  himself. 

t  The  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise,  as  translated  by  Magheoghagan,  records  thus 
this  occurrence,  under  the  year  1368:  "  Teig  MacMagnus  mac  Cahall  was 
deceitfully  taken  by  the  King  of  Connaught,  in  his  house  of  Ard-an-Killin, 


HISTORY    OF   SLTGO.  101 


But  however  we  may  condemn  Donnell  for  this  shocking  and 
unnatural  affair,  we  must  admit  that  he  was  a  singularly  able 
and  valiant  chief,  and  that  he  greatly  increased  the  authority, 
and  enlarged  the  territory,  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo.  If  his 
predecessors  extended  the  rule  of  the  family  from  Ballyshannon 
to  Sligo,  he  stretched  it  on  from  Sligo  to  the  Curlews ;  and 
if  his  father  died  Lord  of  Carbury,*  Donnell  died  "Lord  of 
Carbury  and  Sligo,  and  Lord  also  of  the  tract  of  country  from 
the  mountain  (Curlews)  downwards."-)- — (Four  Masters.) 

Donnell's  death,  which  occurred  in  1395,  was  a  signal  for 
attacks  from  all  sides  on  Carbury  and  Sligo.  Though  Murtough 
Baccagh,  his  eldest  son,  succeeded  on  his  death,  to  the  lordship, 
the  sons  of  Cathal  Oge  J  left  nothing  untried  against  him  to 
secure  the  territory  for  themselves.  With  this  object  they  allied 
themselves  with  the  enemies  of  Murtough,  with  O'Donnell 
(1397),  and  Sir  William  Burke  (1398),  and  brought  them  several 
times  to  Lower  Connaught.  To  say  nothing  of  a  foray  early  in 
the  year  1396,§  an  invasion  of  Carbury  and  Sligo  took  place, 

being  brought  thither  to  the  king's  house  by  Cormack  MacDonogh  upon  his 
security,  of  which  villainous  dealing  that  old  Irish  proverb  grew,  by  comparing 
thereof  to  any  wicked  act — *  The  taking  of  MacManus  was  no  worse.'  He  was 
within  a  little  while  after  worse  used;  for  he  was  given  over  to  Donnell 
MacMurtagh  O'Connor,  who  vilely  did  put  him  to  death  in  the  castle  of 
Sligeach  ;  whereof  ensued  great  contentions  and  general  discords  throughout 
all  Connaught,  especially  between  O'Connor,  MacWilliam,  and  MacDermoda." 

*  Murtough,  the  son  of  Donnell  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Carbury,  and  a  good 
materies  of  a  king  of  Connaught. — Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1329. 

f  "Donnell,  the  son  of  Murtough  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Carbury  and  Sligo,  and 
lord  also  of  that  tract  of  country  from  the  mountain  downwards,  died  in  the 
castle  of  Sligo  a  week  before  Christmas." — Four  Masters,  1395. 

Donnell's  pedigree  is  thus  given  in  Duald  McFirbis'  genealogical  work : 
"Donnell,  son  of  Murtough,  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Teige,  son  of  Brian,  son  of 
Andreas,  who  was  son  of  Brian  Luighnech,  who  was  the  son  of  Turlough  More 
O'Conor,  monarch  of  Ireland." 

J  According  to  the  pedigree  of  the  O'Conors,  preserved  in  the  Book  of  Lecan, 
fol.  72-74,  Cathal  Oge  had  three  sons,  Rory,  Manus,  and  Teige,  by  Graine, 
the  daughter  of  O'Donnell ;  two,  Cathal  and  Rory,  by  Honora,  the  daughter 
of  Sir  Redmond  Burke  ;  two,  Donnell  and  Felimy,  by  the  daughter  of  the 
archbishop  ;  and  Dermot,  who  died  in  1370. — Note  to  Four  Masters,  1385. 

§  O'Donnell  marched  an  army  into  Carbury,  and  a  part  of  this  army  came  up 
with  the  sons  of  Melaghlin  Caech  MacMurtough,  who  were  watching  and 


102  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


towards  the  close  of  that  year,  which  must  have  inflicted  great 
damage  on  the  territory,  judging  from  the  strong  language  of 
the  Four  Masters  :— "  An  army  was  led  by  O'Donnell  (Turlough, 
son  of  Nial  Garv)  and  Teige,  son  of  Cathal  O'Conor,  to  Sligo ; 
and  they  burned  the  whole  town,  both  its  edifices  of  wood  and 
stone ;  and  the  son  of  Conor  Moinmoy,  with  many  others,  was 
slain  by  them  on  this  occasion.  It  was  grievous  that  this  town 
should  have  been  burnt,  for  its  buildings  of  stone  and  wood  were 
splendid/'  and  two  years  later,  the  town  had  to  bear  another 
attack,  which  was  hardly  less  disastrous  than  that  of  1396, 
and  which  is  thus  recorded  in  the  Annals  of  Clonmacnoise,  "Mac- 
William  Burke  and  the  sons  of  Cathall  (Cathal  Oge  O'Connor), 
assaulted  the  castle  of  Sligeagh,  burnt  the  whole  towne,  tooke 
the  spoyles  thereof,  and  ransacked  it  altogether."  Between  the 
sons  of  Cathal  Oge  O'Connor,  O'Donnell,  and  Mac  William 
Burke,  unfortunate  Sligo  at  this  time  was  like  the  kingdom  of 
Judea,  as  described  by  the  prophet  Joel : — "  That  which  the 
palmer  worm  hath  left,  the  locust  hath  eaten  ;  and  that  which 
the  locust  hath  left,  the  bruchus  hath  eaten;  and  that  which 
the  bruchus  hath  left,  the  mildew  hath  destroyed."*  But  how- 
ever these  calamities  may  have  injured  the  town  of  Sligo,  they 
did  not  damp  the  courage,  or  lessen  the  power  of  its  ruler,  who 
continued  to  keep  his  enemies  at  bay,  and,  sometimes,  to  invade 
their  territories,  up  to  1403,  when,  in  the  words  of  the  Annals 
of  Loch  Ce,  "  Murtough  Baccagh,  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough 
O'Conor,  Lord  of  Lower  Connaught,  died"  (in  "the  Castle  of 
Sligo," — Four  Masters),  "  after  triumphing  over  his  enemies  in 
every  part  of  all  Erinu,  the  Friday  after  the  festival  of  Michael," 
29th  of  September. 

It  is  clear,  from  the  entry  of  1396,  that  the  Sligo  of  the 
O'Connors  in  the  fourteenth  century   was  very  different  from 


guarding  the  country  for  the  Connacians,  with  a  great  body  of  cavalry.  They 
were  defeated  by  O'Donnell,  and  they  left  the  most  of  their  horses  behind 
them.  Carbury  was  afterwards  plundered  by  O'Donnell,  who  returned  home 
with  preys.— Note  of  O'Donovan  in  his  edition  of  the  Four  Masters,  anno,  1396. 
*  Joel,  chap,  i.,  v.  4. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  103 

the  Sligo  of  the  FitzGeralds  in  the  thirteenth.  The  town,  as 
the  latter  family  left  it,  was,  with  the  exception  of  the  castle  and 
monastery,  little  else  than  a  collection  of  rude  and  fragile  huts  ; 
and  it  reflects  great  credit  on  the  O'Connors,  that,  under  their 
fostering  care,  the  place  had  improved  so  much  as  to  warrant 
the  flattering  description  of  the  Four  Masters,  that  "  its  buildings 
of  wood  and  stone  were  splendid."  In  the  fourteenth  century 
private  houses  of  stone  must  have  been  very  few  in  these  king- 
doms. If,  as  Macaulay  tells  us,*  most  of  the  houses  of  London, 
at  the  time  of  the  Restoration,  were  of  lath  and  plaster,  it  is  but 
reasonable  to  think,  that  people  had  not  taken  much  to  building 
in  stone,  three  centuries  earlier,  in  the  provincial  towns  of 
England  and  Ireland. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Sligo  was  a  good  deal  indebted 
to  Cathal  Oge  for  its  stone  houses  ;  for  the  intelligent  and  enter- 
prising mind,  which  conceived  and  executed  the  project  of 
replacing,  with  a  stone  and  mortar  bridge,  the  rickety  contri- 
vance of  intertwined  boughs  of  trees,  which,  according  to  local 
tradition,  led  across  the  broad  and  turbulent  river  of  Ballysadare, 
was  also  the  man  to  feel  the  necessity  of  substituting  stone  build- 
ings for  the  wattle  and  wickerwork  constructions  that  then  existed 
in  Sligo.  In  any  case,  the  famous  bridge  of  Ballysadare  could 
hardly  fail  to  give  an  impulse  to  building  in  and  near  Sligo  ;  for, 
that  undertaking  once  completed,  the  disengaged  masons  would 
naturally  try  to  turn  the  hand  to  other  works ;  and,  as  supply  begets 
demand,  they  would  thus  bring  about  the  desired  employment. 
Moreover,  the  noble  quarry,  brought  to  light  during  the  excava- 
tions for  the  bridge,  must  have  supplied  an  additional  motive 
for  constructing  in  stone,  as  the  people  of  Sligo  thus  found, 
within  easy  reach,  the  best  building  material  in  Ireland.  The 
fashion  of  building  new  houses,  whether  in  stone  or  wood, 
having  once  set  in,  would  be  encouraged  and  forwarded  by 

*  Macaulay 's  History  of  England,  third  edition,  Vol.  I.,  p.  350.  "  At  the 
time  of  the  Restoration  the  city  had  been  built,  for  the  most  part,  of  wood  and 
plaster.  ...  A  few  specimens  of  this  architecture  may  still  be  seen  in  thrse 
districts  which  were  not  reached  by  the  great  fire." 


104  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 

Donnell,  who,  on  the  death  of  Cathal  Oge,  succeeded  to  all 
that  chief's  influence,  and  who,  during  his  long  and  prosperous 
tenure  of  office,  was  in  the  best  condition  to  render  effective 
aid  ;  and  he  would  be  the  more  eager  to  turn  people's  thoughts 
to  material  improvement  of  this  kind,  in  order  to  divert  the 
attention  of  his  ambitious  cousins  and  others  from  plots  against 
himself,  just  as  the  late  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  taken  to  the 
adornment  of  Paris,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  his  enemies 
something  else,  to  think  and  talk  of,  than  his  own  political 
acts  and  movements.  Such  would  seem  to  be  the  course  of 
the  progress,  which  took  place  in  the  material  condition  of 
Sligo  during  the  fourteenth  century ;  but  whether  these  were, 
or  were  not,  the  exact  stages  of  the  improvement,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  whatever  of  the  improvement  itself,  considering  the 
emphatic  testimony  of  the  Four  Masters.  From  the  statement 
of  the  annalists  we  may,  perhaps,  be  justified  in  concluding 
that  the  houses  of  Sligo,  towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth, 
century,  were  as  neat  and  handsome  as  at  any  moment  between 
that  period  and  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  since 
which  time  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  houses,  that  are  now  standing, 
have  been  erected,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter. 

The  exact  time  at  which  the  O'Connors  became  masters  of 
Sligo  is  not  known,  nor  is  the  particular  member  of  the  family 
who  first  took  possession  of  the  town.  It  is  sufficiently  certain 
that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  place  as  long  as  the 
Geraldines  owned  it ;  for  the  O'Connors,  during  all  this  time, 
were  living  quietly  and  contentedly  at  Castletown,  and  had  no 
desire  to  provoke  a  quarrel  with  any  one,  much  less  with  the 
powerful  family  of  the  Fitzgeralds.  Nor,  for  the  same  reason, 
would  they  meddle  with  it  while  the  formidable  Red  Earl  was 
connected  with  it,  which  was  from  1310,  when  he  built  or 
repaired  the  castle,  to  1326,  when  he  died. 

Judging  by  probabilities,  in  the  absence  of  positive  proofs, 
Cathal  Oge  would  seem  to  have  been  the  first  of  the  O'Connors 
to  lay  hold  of  Sligo,  at  least  the  first  to  reside  in  the  town. 
The  time  in  which  he  flourished  was  very  favourable  to  the 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  105 

enterprise,  the  murder  of  William,  Earl  of  Ulster,  in  1333,* 
having  unsettled  the  rights  of  property  in  Connaught,  and  bred 
confusion  throughout  the  kingdom.  By  repeated  grants  of  the 
province  of  Connaught  from  the  English  crown  to  her  ancestors,! 
Elizabeth,  the  heiress  and  only  child  of  the  murdered  earl,  was 
sole  legal  owner  of  the  province  on  her  father's  death.  Fear- 
ing, if  she  were  married  to  some  personage  of  exalted  station 
and  power,  as  she  was  sure  to  be,  that  they  would  themselves 
be  humbled,  the  junior  branch  of  the  de  Burgos,  in  avoidance 
of  this  fate,  usurped  her  possessions,  renounced  their  allegiance, 
abjured  English  law,  from  which  indeed  they  had  nothing  but 
punishment  to  expect;  and,  to  secure  for  their  usurpations  the 
support  of  the  Irish,  assumed  Irish  names  and  dress,  and,  in 
their  mode  of  life,  conformed  in  all  things  to  Irish  laws,  man- 
ners, and  customs.  In  this  way  they  acquired  the  sympathy 
and  aid  of  the  Irish,  and  in  this  way  too  they  encouraged,  by 
their  example,  Irish  chieftains  to  encroach  on  possessions  which 
had  been  previously  in  the  occupation  of  the  English.  Such 
being  the  circumstances  of  the  country  in  Cathal  Oge's  day, 
he,  no  doubt,  was  induced  by  them  to  move  into  Sligo. 

But  we  are  not  left  altogether  to  inference  in  fixing  on  him 
as  the  first  O'Connor  who  took  possession  of  Sligo ;  for  all  the 
annals  of  the  country  expressly  tell  us  that  Cathal  Oge  died  in 

*  William  Burke,  Earl  of  Ulster,  was  killed  by  the  English  of  Ulster.  The 
Englishmen  who  committed  this  deed  were  put  to  death,  in  divers  ways,  by 
the  people  of  the  King  of  England  ;  some  were  hanged,  others  killed,  and 
others  torn  asunder,  in  revenge  of  his  death. — Annals  of  the  Four  Masters, 
anno  1333. 

f  Henry  II.  granted  the  province  to  William  Fitz-Andelm  de  Burgo  in  the 
year  1179.— Hardiman's  History  of  Galway,  p.  45. — On  the  12th  of  September, 
1215,  King  John  granted  the  entire  of  Connaught  to  Richard  de  Burgo,  the 
Red  Earl.  This  grant  was  confirmed  in  1218  by  Henry  III.  to  the  Red  Earl 
and  his  heirs On  the  12th  June,  1225,  a  mandate  arrived  from  Eng- 
land, directing  William  Earl  Marshal,  the  Lord  Justice,  to  seize  on  the  whole 
country  of  Connaught  (stated  to  have  been  forfeited  by  O'Conor),  and  to 
deliver  it  to  Richard  de  Burgo,  at  the  yearly  rent  of  300  marks  for  the  first 
five  years,  and  after  that  period  500  marks  for  ever,  excepting,  however,  five 
choice  cantreds  of  land  near  Athlone,  which  were  supposed  to  have  been 
reserved  for  the  use  of  that  garrison. — Hardiman's  History  of  Galway,  p.  47. 


10U  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Sligo,  which  would  signify,  in  the  absence  of  any  indication  to 
the  contrary,  that  Sligo  was  his  habitual  residence.  When  we 
add  to  this,  that  the  chief  who  immediately  preceded  his  day 
is  styled  Lord  of  Carbury,*  while  those  who  immediately  fol- 
lowed are  called  Lords  of  Carbury  and  Sligo,  the  proof  is 
nearly  complete,  that  it  was  Cathal  Oge  who  first  put  the 
family  in  possession  of  the  town,  and  commenced  those  marked 
improvements  in  its  buildings  which  we  have  .been  noticing. 

Besides  Murtough  Baccagh,  who  died,  as  has  been  said,  in 
1403,  and  whose  mother  was  Meave  O'Rorke,  Donnell  had 
at  least  four  other  sons,  Brian,  Owen,  Turlough  Carrach,  and 
Donough ;  and  of  them  Brian,  Owen,  and  Turlough  Carrach 
became  successively  Lords  of  Carbury  and  Sligo.  Brian's  lord- 
ship lasted  thirty-seven  years,  from  1403  to  1440,  during  which 
time  he  took  a  leading,  indeed  the  foremost  part,  in  all  the 
public  transactions  of  Connaught,f  and  conducted  several 
successful  expeditions  against  his  enemies.^  Though  his  mother 
was,  according  to  O'Donovan,  "Raghnailt  O'Donnell,  daughter  of 


*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1329. 

t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1409,  1412,  1413,  1418,  1430,  &c. 

J  Take  those  specimens  of  his  expedition.  A  great  army  was  mustered  by 
Brian,  the  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough  O'Conor  (of  Sligo),  by  MacDonough 
of  Tirerrill,  and  by  the  sons  of  Tiernan  O'Rourke  ;  and  they  placed  provisions 
and  stores  in  the  castle  of  Roscommon,  in  despite  of  the  men  of  Connaught 
from  the  mountain  upwards,  all  of  whom,  both  horse  and  foot,  had  assembled 
together  to  oppose  them.  On  the  same  night  they  returned  to  Airm,  and  on 
the  next  day  to  their  own  houses. — Four  Masters,  1409. 

A  great  army  was  led  by  Brian,  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough  O'Conor 
(of  Sligo),  about  Lammas,  first  into  Gaileanga,  and  thence  into  Clann-Cuain, 
Ceara,  and  Conmaicne  Guile  Toladh,  into  which  latter  territory  he  brought  the 
Clann  Maurice  na-m-Brigh,  and  their  creaghts.  The  Clann-William  Burke,  the 
O'FJahertys,  the  O'Malleys,  the  Barretts,  the  inhabitants  of  the  barony  of 
Gaileanga,  and  the  Costelloes,  assembled  to  oppose  them  ;  but  all  these 
(numero.us  as  they  were),  did  not  venture  to  give  them  either  skirmish  or  battle, 
although  Brian,  in  despite  of  them,  burned  their  territories,  destroyed  their 
corn-fields,  and  burned  their  fortresses,  viz.,  Caislen-an-Bharraigh  (Castlebar) 
of  Leth-inis,  and  Baile-Loch-Measca  (Loughmask  Castle.)  He  then  left  the 
Clann-Maurice  with  their  creaghts  in  their  own  territory  ;  and  he  obtained 
peace  from  the  English  and  Irish  on  this  expedition,  and  returned  home  in 
safety.— Four  Masters,  anno  1412. 


HISTORY   OF   STJOO.  107 


Turlough,  Lord  of  Tirconnell,  he  was  generally  at  war  with  the 
grandfather,  sometimes  in  aggression,  and,  sometimes  in 
defence  ;  *  and  if  O'Donnell  burned  and  plundered  the  territory 
of  Carbury,  as  far  as  Sligo  (1422),  Brian,  on  his  side,  spoiled  all 
Tirhugh,  from  Ath-na-Gall  to  Ballyshannon,  including  its  grass, 
corn,  and  buildings,  and  burned  Murvagh,  O'Donnell's  fortress.! 
And  the  castle  of  Bundrowes  which  he  erected  in  1420,  in  spite 
of  all  the  efforts  of  the  Kinel-Connell  to  stop  the  work,  supplies 
a  still  more  signal  proof  of  Brian's  great  power,  j 

On  the  death  of  Brian,§  in  1440,  his  brother  Owen  succeeded 
to  his  place  ;  but  though  this  Owen,  who  is  the  ancestor  of  the 
O'Connors  Sligo,  had  given,  before  attaining  the  lordship, [| 
abundant  proof  of  military  talent  and  courage,  he  had  no 
opportunity  of  distinguishing  himself  in  the  field,  during  the 
short  time  that  he  held  the  lordship,  having  been  slain  three  or 
four  years  after  his  elevation  to  that  station,  by  one  of  the 
MacDonoughs  in  a  private  quarrel.H 

The  place  vacated  by  Owen,  Turlough  Carrach  secured  for 


*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1420-1422. 

t  Ibid.,  1419. 

J  The  castle  of  Bundrowes  was  commenced  by  Brian,  the  son  of  Donnell,  son  of 
Murtough  O'Conor  ;  but  the  Kinel-Connell,  with  their  forces,  came  to  prevent 
the  work.  Brian  assembled  another  army  to  assist  them,  namely,  his  own  kins- 
men, i.e.,  Teige  O'Rourke,  and  MacDonough,  with  their  forces,  so  that  the  Kinel- 
Connell  did  not  dare  to  proceed  eastwards  across  the  Urscatha  on  that  occasion, 
but  remained  encamped  in  the  Bay  of  Assaroe  .  .  .  After  that  victory, 
Brian  returned  home. — Four  Masters,  1420. 

§  Brian,  the  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Lower 
Connaught,  and  star  of  the  valour  and  bravery  of  the  Irish  of  his  time,  died, 
two  days  before  the  festival  of  St.  John,  after  having  been  thirty-seven  years 
in  the  lordship. — Four  Masters,  1440.  The  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  sub  anno  1440, 
style  him  Lord  of  Sligo. 

II  Annala  of  the  Four  Masters,  1420-1422. 

IF  Owen,  the  son  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Sligo,  and 
of  the  territory  of  Carbury,  was  slain  with  a  cast  of^a  javelin,  by  one  of  the  sons 
of  Cormac  McDonough  ;  for  the  son  of  Melaghlin,  who  was  son  of  Cormac 
McDonough,  had  been  previously  slain  in  a  quarrel  by  the  grandson  of  John 
O'Hart,  and  it  was  on  this  account  that  Owen,  the  son  of  Donnell,  was  slain. — 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1444. 


108  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


himself,  but  secured  it,  at  thecost  of  dissensions  in  the  O'Connor 
Sligo  family,  and  of  division  in  the  O'Connor  Sligo  territory. 
For  the  first  forty-four  years  of  the  fifteenth  century,  that 
family  was  singularly  united.  The  language  which  the  Four 
Masters  often  employ,  such  as,  the  "  sons  of  Donnell "  led  such 
and  such  an  expedition  ;  the  "  sons  of  Donnell  "  repelled  such 
and  such  an  attack ;  shows  that  the  sons  of  Donnell  always 
acted  in  concert,  and  that  cordial  union  prevailed  between  the 
members  of  the  family.  During  this  time,  too,  the  territory 
was  united  and  prosperous,  and  the  Lord  of  Carbury  was  also 
Lord  of  Sligo.  But  this  state  of  things  entirely  changed  on  the 
decease  of  Owen  ;  for  when  Turlough  Carrach  assumed  authority 
in  Sligo,  Owen's  sons,  in  revenge,  joined  O'Donnell  and  Philip 
Maguire,  and  with  them  invaded  Sligo,  burned  the  town,  and 
slew  many  of  Turlough  Carrach 's  friends,  including  Tomultagh 
McDonough,  Lord  of  Tirerrill  (1445). 

About  the  same  time  the  sons  of  Murtough  Baccach  and  the 
sons  of  Brian  had  a  quarrel  of  their  own,*  so  that  the  grandsons 
of  Donnell  had  now  become  as  noted  for  dissensions  as  their 
fathers  had  been  for  union.  Family  strife,  as  usual,  produced 
weakness  and  humiliation,  with  the  result  that  the  O'Connors 
Sligot  were  of  little  or  no  account,  in  the  affairs  of  the  province 
during  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  During  this 
period  their  names  are  hardly  mentioned  in  our  annals,  except 
in  connexion  with  their  fratricidal  quarrels,  as,  for  example,  in 
the  Annals  of  Dudley  Firbis,  where  we  read  under  the  year 
1446,J  "Daniel  fitz  Murcharty  O'Connor,  Lord  of  Carbry-of- 

*  Dudley  Ferbis  writes  thus :— Warr  betwixt  the  sons  of  Morty  backagh 
O'Connor,  and  the  sons  of  Brien  FitzDaniel  O'Connor,  so  that  Manus 
FitzBrien's  son  was  taken  prisoner  in  that  warr,  and  another  of  his  sonnes  was 
wounded,  so  that  they  did  much  harm  to  each  other. 

t  The  style  and  title  of  O'Connor  Sligo,  did  not  come  in  vogue  until  1536, 
and  the  phrase  is  used  here,  as  it  has  been  in  other  places,  by  anticipation,  as 
a  convenient  one  for  designating  the  descendants  of  Brian  Luignech,  in  contra- 
distinction to  other  branches  of  the  O'Conors  of  Connaught. 

J  One  or  two  other  instances  of  these  unfortunate  dissensions  will  not  be 
amiss  here.  The  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  says,  under  the  year  1494 : 


HISTORY  OF  SLTGO.  109 


Drumclaw,  with  the  most  part  of  his  kinsmen,  or  brothers,  were 
killed  by  Eogan  O'Connor's  sons,  in  the  Benden,  and  Ruairy 
fitz  Brian  O'Connor  was  made  Lord  in  his  place,"  and  in  the 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  where  it  is  stated,  under  the  year 
1489,  that  "  Owen,  the  son  of  Felim,  son  of  the  Lord  of  Carbury, 
and  the  two  sons  of  Murtough,  son  of  Owen,  i.e.  Murtough  Oge 
and  John,  were  treacherously  slain  by  Calvach  Caech,  the  son 
of  Donnell,  son  of  Owen ;  and  O'Donnell,  who  was  the  guarantee 
between  them,  plundered  and  ravaged  Carbury,  in  revenge  of 
their  misconduct,  and  the  violation  of  his  surety  and  guarantee." 
Meantime  the  O'Donnells,  through  these  dissensions  of  the 
O'Connors,  acquired  great  authority  over  Carbury  and  all  Lower 
Connaught ;  for  in  1458,  we  find  them  receiving  the  hostages 
of  Lower  Connaught;  in  1469,  disposing  of  the  forces  of  Lower 
Connaught ;  and  in  1470,  taking  the  castle  of  Sligo  and  receiving 
the  submission  of  Lower  Connaught.* 


"  Donnell,  the  son  of  Owen  O'Connor,  Lord  of  Sligo,  a  prosperous  and  warlike 
man,  who  possessed  that  tract  of  country  from  the  Curlieu  Mountains  to 
Bunduff,  being  at  the  summit  of  his  affluence,  was  treacherously  slain  and 
burned,  in  an  attack  by  night,  in  the  bawn  of  the  castle  at  Bunfuine,  by  the 
sons  of  Rory,  son  of  Turlough  Carrach,  namely,  John  and  Brian ;  and  Rory, 
the  son  of  Turlough  Carrach,  took  his  place."  And  under  the  year  1495  : 
"  Rory,  the  son  of  Turlough  Carragh  O'Conor,  Lord  of  Carbury  of  Drumcliff, 
died.  A  contest  arose  among  the  descendants  of  Donnell  concerning  the 
lordship  of  the  country,  namely,  among  Felim,  the  son  of  Manus,  son  of  Brian, 
Rory  Oge,  the  son  of  Rory  Ballagh,  and  Murtough  Caech,  the  son  of  Manua 
O'Conor.  Rory  Oge  and  Turlough,  son  of  Rory,  son  of  Brian,  fell  by  each 
other  in  a  combat  at  Drumcliff,  in  consequence  of  which  the  country  was  left 
to  Felim." 

*  "  The  castle  of  Sligo  was  taken  by  O'Donnell  from  Donnell,  son  of  Owen 
O'Conor,  after  having  besieged  it  for  a  long  time,  and  O'Donnell  obtained  on 
this  occasion  his  own  demands  of  gifts,  besides  (receiving)  submission  and 
tribute  from  Lower  Connaught.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  obtained  the 
book  called  Leabhar-Gearr,  and  another  called  Leabhar-na-h-Uidhri,  and  the 
chairs  of  Donnell  Oge,  which  had  been  brought  westward  in  the  time  of  John, 
the  son  of  Conor,  son  of  Hugh,  son  of  Donnell  Oge  O'Donnell." — Four  Masters, 
1470.— John  O'Donnell  ruled  over  Tirconnell  from  1356  to  1380.  During  this 
time  the  O'Connors  obtained  several  victories  over  him — in  1365-1366 — 1359  ; 
but  it  was  probably  in  that  of  1359,  gained  by  the  heroic  Cathal  Oge  O'Connor, 
that  the  chairs  were  carried  away. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


It  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  dwell  a  moment  on  one  or  two  of 
the  occurrences  just  mentioned.  The  capture  of  Sligo  castle  in 
1370,  which  was  the  outcome  of  a  long  and  methodical  siege, 
was  the  heaviest  and  most  humiliating  blow  received  by  the 
O'Connors  Sligo,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  It  left  them,  for  the 
time,  completely  at  the  mercy  of  their  enemies.  So  long  as  the 
castle  was  safe,  and  in  their  hands,  they  could  not  be  wholly 
defeated  ;  for  when  O'Donnell,  or  Mac  William  Burke,  invaded 
their  territory,  and  they  were  unable,  as  sometimes  happened, 
to  cope  with  him  in  the  field,  they  had  only  to  retire  to  this 
fortress,  and  remain  there  till  the  enemy  withdrew,  when  they 
could  come  forth  again,  and  recover,  in  a  short  time,  much  of 
the  ground  they  had  lost.  But,  deprived  of  the  castle,  every 
defeat  was  decisive  for  them,  as  they  had  no  place  in  which  to 
rally,  and  to  retrieve  their  position.  Indeed,  from  this  time 
forward,  the  main  object  of  most  of  the  conflicts  between  the 
O'Connors  Sligo,  and  their  enemies,  and  between  different 
individuals  of  the  O'Connors  themselves,  was  to  possess  the 
castle  ;  and  during  the  remainder  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
much  of  the  sixteenth,  this  structure  and  its  immediate 
surroundings,  were  the  scene  of  almost  perpetual  hostilities. 
In  1478  the  castle  was  taken  from  O'Donnell  by  MacWilliam 
Burke,  and  handed  over  to  the  family  of  Brian,  the  second 
eldest  son  of  Donnell  O'Connor;  in  1494  the  descendants  of 
Owen,  another  son  of  Donnell,  took  forcible  possession  of  it,  on 
which  occasion  Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell  came  and  besieged  it,  but 
failed  to  make  himself  master  of  it,  though  he  continued  his 
efforts  for  many  months,  and  suffered  during  the  time  very 
heavy  losses  ;*  and  in  1495,  Con  O'Donnell,  in  the  absence  of 


*  O'Donnell,  i.e.,  Hugh  Roe,  went  with  his  forces  to  the  castle  of  Sligo,  and 
remained  a  great  part  of  this  year  encamped  around  it On  this  occa- 
sion many  of  his  people  were  slain,  among  them  the  son  of  MacWilliam 

Burke Many  others  were  also  slain  by  the  warders  of  the  castle,  i.e.y 

by  Brian  Caech,  the  son  of  Teige,  son  of  Owen  ;  Calvach  Caech,  son  of  Donnell, 
son  of  Owen  ;  and  by  Muintir  Airt.  These  transactions  occurred  in  summer. — 
Four  Masters,  H94. 


HISTORY  OF  SLTGO.  Ill 

his  father,  Hugh  Roe,  at  the  Court  of  King  James,  of  Scotland, 
renewed  the  siege,  in  which  his  father  had  failed,  and  in  which 
himself  would  have  failed  still  more  egregiously,  only  that  Hugh 
Roe  returned,  in  the  meantime,  from  Scotland,  and  hearing  of 
Con's  critical  position,  hastened  to  his  assistance,  and  defeated 
their  common  enemies  at  Belladrehid,  in  a  hard-fought  battle, 
attended  with  great  loss  of  life.*  Though  O'Donnell  gained  the 
castle  this  time,  he  had  hardly  taken  it,  when  he  was  dislodged, 
by  Mac  William  of  Clanricard,*  who  reinstated  Calvach  Caecb, 
the  son  of  Owen,  in  possession  ;  an  act  to  which  O'Donnell, 
making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  gave  his  adhesion  the  following 
year,  when,  having  by  his  influence  secured  the  lordship  of 
Carbury  for  Felim,  grandson  of  Brian,  he  agreed  that  the  castle 
of  Sligo  should  remain  in  possession  of  Calvach  Caech ;  an 
arrangement  which,  no  doubt,  he  sanctioned,  the  more  readily, 
as  it  weakened  the  O'Connors  by  dividing  their  territory. 

The  castle  continued  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  be  the  bone  of 
contention,  that  it  had  been  in  the  fifteenth.  In  1501  the  grand- 
sons of  Turlough  Carrach,  who  were  very  powerful  and  active 
about  this  time,  surprised  it,  and  made  themselves  masters  of 
it,  after  a  sanguinary  struggle,  in  which  John,  grandson  of 
Turlough,  fell  by  the  hand  of  Calvach  Caech,  who  in  turn  was 

*  Con,  son  of  Hugh  Roe,  and  his  forces,  surrounded  the  town  of  Sligo,  and 
continued  to  besiege  it  for  some  time.  The  descendants  of  Owen  O'Conor 

mustered  a  very  great  force  to  relieve  Sligo And  now  when  both 

armies  had  their  weapons  of  valour  ready  for  action,  O'Donnell  came  up  with 
them,  for  he  had  arrived  from  Scotland,  and  having  heard,  at  his  own  fortress 
of  Donegal,  of  the  danger  that  his  son  was  in,  he  had  stopped  there  only  one 
night,  and  was  now  come  to  relieve  him.  Upon  O'Donnell's  arrival  in  the 
centre  of  his  people,  both  armies  gave  each  other  a  fierce  and  vigorous  battle, 
in  which  the  army  of  Lower  Connaught  was  defeated  by  O'Donnell,  and  in 
which,  besides  the  Lord  of  Tirerrill,  the  Lord  of  Tireragh,  and  two  grandsons 
of  Owen  O'Conor,  many  others  were  slain,  drowned,  or  taken  prisoners. — Four 
Masters,  1495. 

t  This  fact  is  slurred  over  by  the  Four  Masters,  who  are  always  too  tender  in 
regard  to  the  O'Donnells,  but  it  is  given  in  the  Annals  of  Ulster,  sub  anno 
1495:  "Mac William  of  Clanrickard,  proceeded  with  an  army,  at  the  instance 
of  Calvach  Caech,  to  drive  O'Donnell  from  the  castle  of  Sligo,  and  O'Donnell 
left  the  castle." 


112  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


slain  by  the  invaders.  The  O'Donnells,  meantime,  left  nothing 
undone  to  recover  possession.  Hugh  Oge  O'Donnell  besieged  it 
in  vain  in  1512,  and  again  in  1513,  though  in  the  latter  year 
he  sat  before  it  from  the  1st  of  February  to  June ;  but  three  or 
four  years  later,  in  1516,  he  had  better  success,  for  which  he 
was  indebted  mainly  to  a  pilgrim  of  high  rank,  who  had  come 
from  France  to  perform  his  devotions  at  St.  Patrick's  Purga- 
tory, in  Lough derg,  and  to  whom,  during  his  stay  in  the  country, 
O'Donnell  was  unremitting  in  according  the  honours  and  hospi- 
talities of  Tirconnell.  To  requite  this  courtesy,  the  French 
Knight,  on  reaching  home,  despatched  to  Killybegs  for  his  friend, 
a  vessel  carrying  heavy  ordnance,  to  aid  in  capturing  the  castle 
of  Sligo.  On  the  arrival  of  the  ship,  O'Donnell  ordered  it  to  the 
harbour  of  Sligo  ;  and,  proceeding  himself  to  the  town  by  land, 
at  the  head  of  an  army,  he  attacked  the  place  at  once  by  sea 
and  land.  Even  thus  it  was  only  after  meeting  so  obstinate  and 
spirited  a  resistance  from  the  townsfolk,  as  to  be  obliged  to 
batter  the  whole  town,  that  he  was  able  to  make  his  way  into 
the  castle.  The  following  is  the  account  of  this  transaction  con- 
tained in  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters : — "  The  castle  of  Sligo 
was  taken  by  O'Donnell  (Hugh  Oge,  the  son  of  Hugh  Roe), 
after  it  had  been  a  long  time  out  of  his  possession.  It  was  thus 
he  succeeded  in  taking  it.  A  French  Knight  came  upon  his 
pilgrimage  to  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  on  Lough  Gerg;  and,  on 
his  arrival,  and  at  his  departure,  he  visited  O'Donnell,  from 
whom  he  received  great  honours,  gifts,  and  presents;  and  they 
formed  a  great  intimacy  and  friendship  with  each  other;  and 
the  knight,  upon  learning  that  the  castle  of  Sligo  was 
defended  against  O'Donnell,  promised  to  send  him  a  ship 
with  great  guns;  and  the  knight,  too,  performed  that  promise, 
for  the  ship  arrived  in  the  harbour  of  Killybegs.  She  was 
steered  directly  westwards  to  Sligo;  and  O'Donnell  and  his 
army  marched  by  land,  so  that  they  met  from  sea  and  land 
at  the  town.  They  battered  the  town  very  much  before  they 
obtained  possession  of  it,  and  O'Donnell  gave  protection  to 
the  warders." 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  113 


For  eleven  years  he  now  maintained  his  hold  of  the  place, 
but  had  to  encounter  two  formidable  sieges  of  it  in  the  mean- 
time. The  first  was  in  1522,  when  the  troops  of  Munster, 
under  the  O'Briens,  and  the  troops  of  Connaught,  under 
MacWilliam  of  Clanrickard,  O'Conor  Roe,  O'Conor  Don, 
MacWilliam  Burke,  and  MacDermot  of  Moylurg,  being  on 
their  way  to  join  O'Neil  in  his  conflict  with  the  O'Donnells, 
stopped  to  take  the  town  of  Sligo,  unwilling  to  leave  so  impor- 
tant a  place  in  their  rear ;  but  this  danger  did  not  in  the  event 
prove  as  formidable  as  it  looked  at  first ;  for  the  besiegers,  on 
hearing  that  the  O'Donnells  had  defeated  their  adversaries  in 
the  great  battle  of  Cnoc-Buidhe  (Knockavoe),  and  were  already 
at  Carrownamodow,  at  the  foot  of  Benbulben,  in  victorious 
march  to  Sligo,  decamped  and  retreated  in  haste  across  the 
Curlews.* 

The  second  attempt  on  Sligo  was  made  by  the  O'Connors. 
Being  now  fairly  united  among  themselves,  and  being  supported 
by  the  MacDonoughs,  they  surrounded  Sligo,  and  sought  to 
take  the  castle,  to  which,  no  doubt,  they  thought  they  had 
better  claims  themselves  than  the  distant  chiefs  of  Tirconnell ; 
but  O'Donnell,  learning  their  designs  and  efforts,  hastened  to 
the  relief  of  the  place,  and,  on  the  enemies  retiring  before  him, 
pursued  them  to  Belladrehid,  inflicted  on  them  there  a  most 
serious  defeat,f  and  compelled  them  to  accept  such  conditions 
of  peace  as  he  thought  well  to  dictate.  Some  time  after,  in 

*  The  great  victory  of  Cnoc-Buidhe  added  greatly  to  the  fame  of  Hugh  Duv 
O'Donnell,  which  was  still  more  enhanced  by  the  precipitate  retreat  of  the 
Munster  and  Connaught  armies.  "  Scarcely  did  the  defeat  of  Cnoc-Buidhbh, 
in  which  many  men  had  been  slaughtered,  and  vast  spoils  obtained,  procure 
greater  renown  or  victory  for  O'Donnell  throughout  Ireland  than  this  bloodless 
retreat." — Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1522. 

t  The  Connaciau  army  left  great  spoils  of  horses,  arms,  and  armour,  to  the 
Cinel-Connell  on  that  occasion,  and  from  the  time  that  Hugh  Roe,  the  son  of 
Nial  Garv,  had  gained  the  battle  of  Ceideach-droighnech  over  the  Connacians, 
where  many  of  them  were  slain,  the  Cinel-Connell  had  not  given  a  defeat  to 
the  Connacians,  which  redounded  more  to  their  triumph,  or  by  which  they 
obtained  more  spoils,  than  this  defeat  of  Bel-an-droichit." — Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  1526. 

VOL.   I.  H 


114  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


the  year  1533,  Teige  Oge  O'Connor  got  possession  of  the  castle, 
having  obtained  it  in  a  nocturnal  attack,  which  he  made  in 
collusion  with  O'Donnell's  warders,  who  had  arranged  to  betray 
it. 

This  chief  was  an  able  and  ambitious  man,  and,  wishing  to 
excel  all  the  O'Connors  who  had  gone  before  him,  he  assumed, 
in  1536,  the  style  and  title  of  The  O'Connor,  the  distinguishing 
name  of  preceding  lords  being  MacDonnell  mic  Murtough,  that 
is,  descendant  of  Donnell,  son  of  Murtough.*  In  order  to 
prove  himself  not  unworthy  of  the  new  distinction,  he  made 
two  incursions  in  the  year  he  obtained  it :  one  against  the 
Clann  Costello  of  Kilcoleman,  from  which  he  brought  back  a 
famous  coat  of  mail,  given  him,  in  token  of  submission,  by 
Rory  Costello,  and,  as  a  hostage,  Rory  himself;  and  the  other 
against  O'Conor  Roe  and  his  allies,  from  which  he  carried 
home  hostages,  and,  a  prize  he  seemed  to  set  a  still  higher 
value  upon,  the  ornamental  door  of  the  castle  of  Turrock,  which 
was  thenceforth  set  up,  as  a  trophy,  in  the  gateway  of  Sligo 
Castle.t 

Nor  was  Teige,  this  same  year,  without  attack  himself;  for 
O'Donnell  invaded  Lower  Connaught,  passed  through,  and 
ravaged  Carbury  and  Tireragh;  and  though  O'Conor  on  this 
occasion  made  some  pretence  of  giving  battle,  he  fought  rather 
shy  of  the  enemy,  retiring  to  Belladrehid,  and  allowed  the 
Tirconnell  chief  to  return  home  with  little  loss,  after  destroying 
much  property,  but  '-without  obtaining  rent  or  tribute,  sub- 

*  Teige  Oge,  son  of  Teige,  son  of  Hugh,  son  of  Turlough  Carragh  O'Conor, 
was  proclaimed  the  O'Conor.  And  this  was  not  the  usual  name  of  the  person 
who  was  lord  of  Sil- Conor  in  Lower  Connaught,  but  whosoever  of  them  was 
lord  of  Lower  Connaught,  was  usually  called  MacDonnell  Mic  Murtough. 
Nevertheless  it  was  to  exalt  his  family,  and  to  excel  the  kings  preceding  him, 
that  he  was  proclaimed  by  this  change  of  name.— Annals  of  Loch  Ce, 
an.  1536. 

t  These  troops  returned,  having  accomplished  their  expedition,  as  was 
pleasing  to  them  ;  and  they  took  with  them  to  Sligo  those  hostages,  namely, 
the  son  of  O'Kelly,  and  the  son  of  O'Hanly  ;  and  they  also  carried  with  them 
the  variegated  door  of  the  castle  which  they  had  taken,  in  order  to  place  it  as 
a  door  in  the  castle  of  Sligo.— Four  Masters,  1536. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  115 


mission  or  homage,  from  the  chiefs  of  Lower  Connaught  on 
that  occasion,  which  was  unusual  with  him,"  as  the  Four  Masters 
have   it.*       Though   this   O'Donnell,   Hugh   Duv,   died   some 
months  later,!  O'Connor  Sligo  had  to  encounter  a  still  more 
formidable  enemy  in  the  late  chieftain's  son,  Manus,  who  was 
hardly   installed    in    authority   when   he    invaded   O'Connor's 
territory ;  burning    and    ravaging    Carbury,    Tirerrill,  Corran, 
Leyney,  and  Tireragh.     This  happened  in  1537,  but  in  1538 
Manus  dealt  a  still  deadlier  blow,  when  he  captured  the  castle 
of  Sligo,  which  had  foiled  all  the  efforts  of  his  father,  and  which 
was  well  defended  by  brave  warders  with  powerful  ordnance. { 
With  this  stronghold  in  his  hands  Minus  was  able,  in  1539,  to 
obtain  the  hostages  of  Lower  Connaught ;  in  1542,  to  exact 
rent  or  tribute  from  the  chiefs  of  Lower  Connaught ;  and,  in 
general,  to  act  as  Lord  Paramount  of  the  territory. 

As  to  Teige  Oge  O'Connor,  he  disappears  from  view  at  the 
capture  of  the  castle  in  1538,  and  is  no  more  heard  of  till  it  is 
related  under  the  year  1545,  that  he  was  slain  at  Ath-chinn- 
Locha  §  by  Cormac  McDerm  ot,  who  was  himself  slain  soon 
after,  and  of  whose  death  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  remarks  : 
"It  was  right  of  God  that  he  should  fall,  for  he  acted  badly  in 


*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1536. 

t  This  is  a  portion  of  the  long  and  elaborate  eulogium  of  the  Four  Masters 
on  Hugh  Duv  O'Donnell :  "  O'Donnell  (Hugh,  the  son  of  Hugh  Roe,  son  of 
Niall  Garv,  son  of  Turlough  of  the  Wine,  Lord  of  Tirconnell,  Inishowen, 
Kinel-Owen,  Fermanagh,  and  Lower  Connaught)  [died ;  he  was]  a  man  to 
whom  rents  and  tributes  were  paid  by  other  territories  over  which  he  had 
extended  his  jurisdiction  and  power,  such  as  Moylurg,  Machaire  Connaught, 
Clann-Conway,  Costello,  Galleanga,  Tirawley,  and  Comnaicne  Cuile  to  the 
west ;  and  to  the  east,  Oireacht-Ui-Chathain,  the  Route,  and  Clannaboy ;  for 
of  these  there  was  not  one  territory  that  had  not  given  him  presents,  besides 
his  tribute  of  protection,"  &c. — Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1537. 

£  An  army  was  led  by  O'Donnell  (Manus)  into  Lower  Connaught,  ami 
triumphantly  took  the  castle  of  Sligo,  which  was  well  defended  by  warders 
and  cannon,  after  it  had  been  for  some  time  out  of  his  possession,  and  it  could 
not  be  taken  until  then. — Four  Masters,  1538. 

§  O'Connor  Sligo,  i.e.  Teige  Oge,  was  slain  at  Ath-ohina-locha— Annals  of 
Loch  Ce,  1545. 


116  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


killing  O'Conor  Sligo,  in  treachery,  at  Ath-chinn-locha  or 
Loch  Teched."  * 

Teige,  son  of  Cathal  Oge,  succeeded  Teige  Oge,  and  ruled 
as  chief  from  the  latter's  death  in  1545  to  his  own  death  in 
1552,  if  he  did  not  begin  to  rule  earlier,  which  would  seem 
prohable  from  Teige  Oge's  obscure  condition  since  1538  ;  from 
Teige  having  the  disposal  of  the  Connaught  hostages  so  early 
as  1542  ;f  and  from  his  entering  into  a  treaty  or  compact  in 
153&,  regarding  the  castle  of  Sligo,  with  Manus  ODonnell. 
On  Teige's  death  there  was  a  dispute  about  the  succession,  in 
which  all  the  O'Conors  and  the  MacDermots  took  action,  either 
on  one  side  or  the  other ;  but  Donnell,  the  second  son  of  the 
late  chief,  by  his  own  energy  and  by  the  devoted  co-operation 
of  his  elder  brother,  Cathal  Oge,  succeeded,  after  a  protracted 
contest,  to  the  lordship,  which,  with  the  aid  of  the  English, 
he  retained  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

From  this  time  forward  the  English  play  an  important  part 
in  the  affairs  of  Sligo.  Disappearing  from  view,  with  the 
De  Burgos  and  Geraldines,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  they  now  reappear  on  the  scene,  and  reassert  them- 
selves, after  an  absence  of  three  centuries.  Between  the 
fourteenth  century  and  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the  monarchs 
of  England  rarely  interfered  in  Irish  affairs  outside  the  Pale, 
but  from  the  year  1541,  when  Henry  received  the  title  of  King 
of  Ireland,  the  great  aim  of  British  rulers  and  statesmen,  in 
regard  to  this  country,  was  to  make  all  its  parts,  as  well  without 
as  within  the  Pale,  amenable  to  English  authority  and  law. 
In  pursuance  of  this  policy,  they  induced  Irish  chiefs,  by 
profuse  gifts  of  dignities,  of  money,  and  even  of  dress, J  to 


*  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1545. 

t  Mac  William  brought  with  him  the  hostages  of  Teige  Oge,  son  of  Teige, 
son  of  Hugh  ;  and  the  hostages  of  Teige,  son  of  Cathal  Oge,  and  of*  Lower  Con- 
naught.— Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  A.D.  1542. 

t  Henry  VIII.,  in  writing  of  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  to  the  Lord  Deputy  and 
Council,  observes,  "  And  for  his  reward  we  gave  unto  him  a  chayne  of  three- 
score poundes  and  odde,  We  pay'd  for  his  robes,  and  the  charges  of  his 


HFSTORY   OF   SLIGO.  117 

renounce  their  Irish  captaincies,  and  accept  English  lordships 
or  other  titles  instead  ;  to  surrender  their  Brehon  tenures  and 
customs,  and  take  back  their  lands  as  grants  from  the  king  on 
the  usual  conditions  of  English  landed  estate ;  and,  in  general, 
to  exchange  their  Irish  status,  with  its  dependence  on  their 
septs,  for  an  English  status,  resting  on,  and  supported  by,  the 
authority  of  the  Crown.  The  advantages  which  were  thus 
offered,  and  which  tended  to  make  the  chiefs  independent  of 
their  septs,  were  eagerly  embraced  both  by  the  Anglo-Irish 
and  the  Irish  lords ;  and,  in  no  very  long  time  the  Butlers,  the 
Fitzgeralds,  and  the  Burkes,  as  well  as  the  O'Briens,  the 
O'Neils,the  O'Donnells,  and  the  O'Connors  Sligo,  had  exchanged 
their  old  position  for  the  new  one.  A  change,  however,  of  such 
moment  was  not  effected  in  a  day,  nor  in  some  places  as  readily 
as  in  others,  local  circumstances  prejudicing  or  predisposing 
the  mind  in  regard  to  it.  The  nearer  people  lived  to  the  seat 
of  government  the  more  they  were  drawn  to  the  new  order  of 
things ;  and  when  the  chief  was  Anglo-Irish  there  was  more 
sympathy  for  it  than  when  he  was  Irish  pur  sang.  For  the 
causes  indicated,  the  new  system  was  enforced  in  some  places 
under  Henry  VIIL,  whereas  in  others  it  was  not  introduced 
before  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  or  even  the  reign  of  James. 

The  adhesion  or  submission   of  the  O'Connors  Sligo  to  this 
policy  of  England  dates  from  the  first  Lord  Deputyship  of  Sir 


creation,  threescore  and  five  poundes  tenue  shillinges  two  pens,  and  We  gave 
him  in  redy  money  oon  hundreth  poundes  sterling." — State  Paper  ccclxxxi, 
quoted  in  Moore's  History  of  Ireland,  Vol.  III.,  p.  322.  And  again,  "  We 
have  granted  unto  every  of  them,  and  their  heires  masles,  summe  house  and 
pece  of  lande  nere  Dublyn,  for  the  keeping  of  their  horses  and  traynes,  at 
their  repayre  to  our  parlyaments  and  counsailles." — Ibid. 

O'Neill,  who  was  the  first  of  the  Irish  chiefs  to  surrender,  covenanted: — 1.. 
To  renounce  the  name  of  O'Neal ;  2.  That  he  and  his  followers  should  use 
English  habits,  language  and  manners  ;  3.  That  their  children  should  learn 
English  ;  4.  -That  they  should  obey  English  laws,  and  not  cess  their  tenants, 
nor  keep  more  gallowglasses  than  the  Lord  Deputy  allows  ;  5.  That  they 
should  build  houses  and  husband  their  land  in  English  manner  ;  and  6.  That 
they  should  answer  all  general  hostings,  as  those  of  the  Pale  do,  and  shall  not 
succour  any  of  the  King's  enemies. — Cox's  Hibernia  Anglicaua,  p.  275. 


118  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Henry  Sydney,  which  began  in  the  year  1565.*  It  is  true  Sir 
Henry's  predecessor  in  office,  Lord  Sussex,  passed  through  Sligo 
with  an  army  in  1561,  but,  owing  to  a  stratagem  of  Calvagh 
O'Donnell,  which  is  mentioned  by  the  Four  Masters,  and  by 
which  that  cunning  chief  outwitted  both  the  O'Connors  and  the 
Deputy  ,f  Sussex  was  prevented  from  having  any  communication 
with  the  O'Connors  on  that  occasion. 

Sir  Henry  Sydney  on  assuming  office,  lost  no  time  in  "making 
warre"  on  the  " Arch-rebell,  Shane  O'Neill;"  and  it  was  on 
reaching  Sligo,  after  marching  in  triumph  through  Ulster,  that 
he  received  the  homage  of  Donnell  O'Connor.  When  leaving 
the  town,  the  Deputy  took  Donnell  with  him  to  Boyle,  where 
they  entered  into  a  formal  treaty  or  indenture  with  one  another, 
by  which  O'Connor — 

First. — Acknowledges  Elizabeth  to  be  his  liege  Lady  and 
Queen,  and  to  be  sole  and  supreme  in  both  ecclesiastical  and 
temporal  causes. 

Second. — Promises  not  to  adhere  to  any  rebel  or  enemy  of 
the  Queen,  but  to  act  against  them  all,  and,  especially,  against 
John  (Shane)  O'jSTeill. 

Third. — Agrees  that,  whereas  the  Lord  Deputy,  on  the  Queen's 
behalf,  has  entered  into  the  castle  of  Sligo,  and  demanded  a  cer- 
tain annual  rent,  and  the  Earl  of  Kildare  has  claimed  the  castle 
and  rent  by  right  of  inheritance,  and  Lord  Calvagh  O'Donnell 
has  demanded  the  same,  he  (O'Connor)  will  pay  half  a  year's 
rent  to  O'Donnell ;  while  the  Lord  Deputy  promises  "  to  discuss 
and  adjudicate  touching  the  rights  of  the  Queen,  and  the  said 
Earl,  after  the  feast  of  the  Purification." 

*  Three  times  her  Majestic  hath  sent  me  her  Deputie  into  Ireland— MS. 
Memoir  of  his  government  in  Ireland,  by  Sir  H.  Sydney. 

t  Sussex  then  proceeded,  across  the  Erne,  into  the  territory  of  Carbury,  to 
lay  siege  to  the  castle  of  Sligo.  Calvagh,  noticing  this,  bethought  him  of  a 
stratagem  j  he  sent  his  own  standard  to  the  town,  and  displayed  it  on  the 
battlements  of  the  tower.  The  Lord  Justice  asked  whose  standard  it  was  that 
he  saw.  Calvagh  made  answer  and  said  that  it  was  his  own  standard ;  and 
that  the  town  was  his  own,  and  had  belonged  always  to  his  family  ;  upon  which 
the  Lord  Justice  delivered  up  the  keys  of  the  town  to  Calvagh.— Four  Masters, 
1561. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  119 


Fourth. — Engages  to  aid  O'Donnell  against  O'Neill  with  his 
horsemen  and  kerne,  and  this  not  of  any  right,  but  in  compliance 
with  the  mandate  of  the  Lord  Deputy  for  the  Queen's  service.* 

On  Sydney's  return  to  England  in  1567,  he  was  accompanied 
by  O'Connor  Sligo  and  several  other  chieftains  ;f  and  Sir 
Donald,  if  we  are  to  rely  on  John  O'Donovan  and  Cox,  was 
confined,  for  some  time  after  his  arrival,  in  the  tower  of  London, 
though  other  authorities  are  silent  on  this  imprisonment,  which, 
indeed,  seems  quite  inconsistent  with  the  friendly  relations 
between  Sir  Henry  Sydney  and  the  Sligo  chief.  But  however 
this  may  be,  O'Connor  soon  gained  the  esteem  and  confidence 
of  the  Queen,  and  a  new  indenture  was  entered  into  between 
him  and  Elizabeth,  fixing  their  relations.  The  preamble  of  this 
interesting  instrument  says,  "  The  said  O'Connor  Sligo  came  to 
the  Queen  at  Hampton  Court,  the  8th  November,  in  the  9th 
year  of  her  reign,  and  there,  in  his  Irish  tongue,  by  an  inter- 
preter, declared  to  her  Majesty  that  the  chief  cause  of  his  coming 
was  to  see  and  speak  to  the  powerful  and  illustrious  princess, 
whom  he  recognized  to  be  his  sovereign  Lady,  acknowledging 
that  both  he  and  his  ancestors  had  long  lived  in  an  uncivil,  rude, 
and  barbarous  fashion,  destitute  of  the  true  knowledge  of  God, 
and  ignorant  of  their  duty  to  the  imperial  crown  of  England ; 

*  This  treaty  is  styled  "  Indenture  between  O'Connor  Sligo  and  Sir  Henry 
Sydney,  K.G.,  Deputy  General  in  Ireland,  with  the  Council  of  that  Kingdom 
on  the  one  part,  and  Donald  O'Connour,  commonly  called  O'Connour  Sligo  of 
the  other  part."  It  was  "Signed  at  the  monastery  of  Aboile  (Boyle),  24th 
October,  8fl"  (1566.) 

t  The  Lord  Deputy,  soon  after  this  capture,  went  over  to  England,  taking 
with  him  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  the  Baron  of  Dungannon,  0' Conor  Sligo,  and 
others.  The  Earl  of  Desmond  and  0' Conor  Sligo  were  confined  in  the  tower  of 
London,  but  O'Conor,  by  indenture,  made  his  submission  to  the  Queen,  and 
was,  therefore,  set  at  liberty. — Note  of  O'Donovan  in  his  edition  of  the  Four 
Masters,  sub  anno  1567. 

Sydney  at  length  prevailed  to  get  licence  to  go  for  England  ;  he  carried  with 
him  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  the  Baron  of  Dungannon,  O'Conor  Sligo,  O' Carol,  and 
others.  .  .  .  Being  come  in  to  Hampton  Court,  he  was  well  received  for 
the  present  by  the  Queen.  .  .  .  However,  the  Earl  of  Desmond  and 
O'Connor  were  clapt  up  in  the  tower,  and  Sir  John  of  Desmond  was  sent  for, 
and  imprisoned  in  the  same  place. — Hibernia  Anglicana,  Vol.  I.,  p.  326. 


120  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


he  asserted  that  he  had  continually  resisted  that  odious  traitor 
and  rebel,  Shane  O'Neill.  At  the  same  time  he  made  his 
humble  submission  to  the  Queen,  and  now  he  does  the  same  in 
the  following  manner  : — 

First. — He  acknowledges  the  Queen  to  be  his  natural  princess 
and  sovereign  lady. 

Second. — He  not  only  submits  his  life,  land,  and  goods,  to  the 
Queen's  mercy,  but  also  surrenders  and  resigns  his  office  of 
Captain  of  O'Connor  Sligo,  into  her  hands,  with  all  the  castles, 
manors,  &c.,  which  he  holds  as  O'Connor  Sligo  in  the  countries 
of  Carbury,  Tireragh,  Moay  Layen  (Maghera  Leyney)  Cowlavin, 
Cormer  (Corran),  and  Tirerrill,  in  Connaught,  imploring  tho 
Queen's  pardon  and  grace,  and  that  he  may  henceforth  be 
reputed  as  an  Englishman,  and  praying  her  to  grant  him  his 
said  country  and  lands  to  be  held  of  her  Majesty,  and  to  be 
exempted  from  subjection  and  servitude,  and  all  burdens 
imposed  by  O'Donnell,  or  any  other,  but  the  imperial  crown  of 
England. 

Third. — The  Queen  receives  him  into  her  grace  and  protection, 
and,  accepting  the  said  surrenders  and  resignation,  promises, 
after  due  inquiries,  "  to  grant  him,  by  letters  patent,  all  his  law- 
ful possessions  in  tail-male,  at  a  certain  rent,  which  is  not  to 
exceed  £100  Irish,  and  which  may  be  paid  either  in  money  or 
kind  of  the  same  value." 

Fourth. — He  binds  himself  in  £10,000  to  observe  the  con- 
ditions of  this  indenture. 
Witnesses : — 

Nicholas  Bacon,  Lord-Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal. 

Francis,  Count  of  Bixford. 

Robert,  Count  of  Leicester. 

William  Howard  of  Effingham. 

Edmund  Rogers. 

Francis  Knollys. 

William  Cecyl. 

Ambrose  Caique,  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 

Walter  Mildmaye. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  121 


Henry  Sydney,  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland. 

James  Dior. 

John  Southcote. 

Richard  Onslow. 

Luke  Dillon. 

Nicholas  White. 

Owen  O'Conchur,  Cleric,  brother  of  the  afore- 
said Donald,  and  others  ;"  whose  names  are  not 
given. 

In  pursuance  of  this  Indenture  Donnell  received,  as 
he  was  setting  out  for  Ireland,  the  following  royal  letter: — 
Eliz.  R.  "  Whereas,  Sir  Donald  O'Connor  Sligo,  Knyght 
of  the  partes  of  Conagh,  cummyng  with  our  right  trustie 
Sir  Henry  Sydney,  Knyght,  our  Deputie  of  that  our 
realme,  hither  to  our  Courte,  to  acknowledge  his  loyal  dutie  to 
us  his  soveraigne  Lady,  hayth  very  humbly  and  voluntaryly 
submytted  himself  to  our  grace,  and  freelie  surrendered  to  us 
all  his  possessions  ;  whereupon  wee  have  receyved  hym  into  our 
protection,  and  have  farther  accorded  to  make  unto  hym  and 
the  heyres  males  of  his  father,  certayne  Estates  of  Inheritaunce, 
as  more  at  lardge  may  appeare  by  our  letters  patent,  which  he 
will  showe  youe  ;  Wee  have  thought  mete  to  recommend  hym 
unto  youe,  as  one  whom  wee  certaynly  trust  will  prove  and 
continue  a  faythful  subject;  and,  therefor,  wee  will  and  chardge 
you  readily  to  hear  sondre  complaynts  as  he  hayth  to  make  unto 
youe,  for  the  deteyning  certain  his  castles  from  hym,  as  he  sayth, 
that  is  to  say,  the  castells  of  Bondrowys  by  O'Donnell,  and  Bal- 
lintogher  by  O'Rourke,  and  Ardnaree  by  Olyver  Burghes' sons, 
and  that  you  cause  the  sayd  parties  to  appear  and  make  answere 
before  yourselfs  or  souch  other  as  you  shall  think  mete,  to  hear 
the  complaynts  of  the  sayd  O'Conor  Slego,  and  to  give  direction 
for  restitution  to  the  sayd  Sir  Donald  O'Conor,  of  that  which 
shall  be  found  due  to  hym  by  order  of  justice.  And  further- 
more wee  will,  that  yf  there  hayth  bene  any  spoyles  made  of 
any  his  goods  during  his  absence,  in  comrnyn  hither  and  retourne 
thither,  that  upon  his  complaynt,  order  be  gyven  for  the  trial 


122  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


thereof,  and  restitution  to  be  made  to  hym,  as  the  case  shall 
requyre  ;  Lastly,  we  let  you  to  understand  that  upon  his  humble 
and  reasonable  request,  wee  are  well  contented  that  the  howse 
of  the  Fryerie  of  Slego,  wherein,  he  sayth,  the  sepulture  of  his 
auncestors  hayth  bene,  shall  be  so  preserved,  as  the  Friars  thear, 
being  converted  to  secular  priestes,  the  same  howse  may  re- 
mayne  and  contynue  as  well  for  the  sepulture  of  his  posteritie,  as 
for  the  mayntenance  of  prayer  and  service  of  God.  And  yf  in 
any  onther  reasonable  thinge  the  said  Sir  Donald  O'Conor 
Siego  shall  for  the  mayntenance  of  hymself,  his  tenants  and 
possessions  in  our  realm,  as  shall  belong  to  a  good  and  faythful 
subject,  requyre  your  ayde,  wee  will  and  chardge  youe  to  ayde 
and  assist  hym,  in  our  name,  to  the  best  of  your  power,  for  so 
wee  are  disposed  to  showe  all  favour  to  so  good  a  servant  and 
subject,  as  wee  take  hym  to  be  ;  and  by  the  experience  wee  have 
sene  of  his  behaviour  here,  we  think  assuredly  he  will  contynue  j 
And  where  he  hayth  requyred  that  he  might  have  the  true  copie 
of  this  our  letter,  wee  are  contented  that  youe  shall  delyver 
unto  hym  a  copie  of  the  same,  in  souche  sorte  as  in  lyke  cases 
youe  are  accustomed,  under  our  seale  theare.  Given  under  our 
signet  at  our  Palais  of  Westminster,  the  xxvth  daie  of  January, 
1567,  the  tenth  year  of  our  reign/' 

SirDonnell,on  his  return  to  Sligo,  was  in  no  haste  to  perform 
the  engagements  of  the  Indenture.  Having  compassed  his  main 
object,  in  securing  the  protection  and  patronage  of  the  Queen, 
he  neglected  to  sue  out  the  regrant  of  his  lands,  which  could  not 
be  done  without  expense,  and  which,  besides,  might  bring  him 
the  ill-will  of  some  of  his  people.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
motive  of  his  conduct,  he  allowed  twelve  years  to  pass  without 
moving  at  all  in  the  matter,  and,  what  must  have  been  still  more 
vexatious  to  the  thrifty  Queen,  without  paying  a  penny  of  the 
stipulated  rent.  To  increase  her  displeasure,  she  was  told  that 
O'Connor  Sligo,  whom  she  had  taken  to  be  a  paragon  of  sim- 
plicity and  candour,  had  outwitted  herself  and  all  her  renowned 
statesmen,  and  had  palmed  off  on  the  royal  Council,  as  a  correct 
statement,  a  cooked  account  of  his  lands  and  circumstances, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


putting  the  value  of  the  lands  so  low  as  to  lead  to  the  fixing  of 
an  entirely  inadequate  rent.  The  Queen  was  nettled  by  all 
this ;  and  in  the  Instructions  *  which  she  addressed  to  Sir 
Nicholas  Malbie,  on  his  taking  office  as  President  of  Connaught, 
she  urges  him,  in  a  strong-worded  paragraph,  to  bring  the 
slippery  Sligo  chief  to  his  duty.f  But  O'Donnell,  who  could 
over-reach,  much  abler  men  than  Sir  Nicholas  Malbie,  would  not 
be  brought  to  book  by  him.  While  always  ready  to  pay  his 
respects  either  to  the  Governor  of  Connaught,J  or  to  the  Lord 
Deputy ,§  he  maintained,  to  the  last,  an  insuperable  objection  to 
paying  one  or  other  of  them  rent ;  and,  whatever  efforts  the 


*  Orders  to  be  observed  by  Sir  Nicholas  Maltby,  for  the  better  government  of 
the  Province  of  Connaught. 

t  Whereas  O'Conor  Sligo,  upon  a  wrong  suggestion  made  unto  us  of  the 
small  circuit  and  dishability  of  his  countrie,  obtained  of  us  a  warrant  for  a 
grant  to  pass  in  Ireland  for  the  freedom  of  his  lands,  in  consideration  of  £100 
Irish  per  annum,  to  be  paid  by  him  ;  which  grant  he  hath  neither  passed  there 
or  observed  the  conditions  to  be  performed  on  his  part ;  Wee  think  it  meet 
that  ye  treat  with  him  to  yield  to  such  composition  as  the  rest  of  the  captains 
of  countries  within  that  province  have  consented  unto  rateably,  according  to 
the  quantity  of  his  country,  which  we  think  reasonable,  as  well  in  respect  of 
our  charge  and  expences  in  settling  a  government  there  for  defence  of  him 
and  others  of  his  quality,  as  also  that  the  conditions  to  be  observed  by  him 
have  not  been  kept  according  to  the  words  and  meaning  of  our  former  grant. 

"  On  the  26th  December,"  writes  Cox,  in  the  Hibernia  Anglicana,  Vol.  I.,  p. 
385,  "  O'Conner  Sligo,  who  had  formerly  taken  a  Patent  for  the  county  Sligo, 
at  the  yearly  rent  of  £100  per  annum,  did  covenant  that  in  lieu  of  cess  he 
would  pay  every  year  a  fine  horse,  and  100  large  fat  beeves  per  annum,  at 
Michaelmas  at  the  castle  of  Athlone,  and  also  that  he  would  at  all  hostings 
bring  20  Horse  and  60  Foot,  and  maintain  them  40  days,  and  would  pay  in 
money  £25  per  annum,  and  that  in  cases  of  necessity  he  should  assist  the 
Queen  with  all  his  Forces,  and  that  he  should  make  legal  estates  to  the  Free- 
holders, they  paying  their  proportion  of  the  foregoing  Contribution  ;  and  the 
Queen  granted  O'Conner  all  Forfeitures  for  Felony,  or  by  Outlawry,  or  Recog- 
nisance, and  all  Waifs,  Strays,  and  Penalties  for  Bloudshed."— Cox — Hibernia 
Anglicana,  Vol.  I.,  p.  385. 

£  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1577.  Letter  of  Malbie  to  Earl  of  Leicester,  written 
from  Athlone,  July  20,  1582. 

§  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1578.  O'Connor  Sligo  and  Brian  McDermot  went  to 
Dublin  to  the  great  council,  and  they  were  five  weeks  at  that  court,  and 
received  great  honour  from  the  Council  of  Erin. 


124  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


Governor  may  have  made — and  he  left  nothing  unattempted — * 
to  carry  out  the  instructions  of  the  Queen,  in  regard  to  O'Connor 
Sligo ;  these  efforts  were  in  vain ;  for  it  was  only  on  occasion  of 
Sir  John  Perrot's  famous  Composition  with  the  magnates  of 
Sligo,  in  the  year  1585,  when  Sir  Nicholas  was  a  year  dead, 
that  Sir  Dounell  accepted  the  letters  patent,  which  conveyed 
the  grant,  and  regulated  the  tenure  of  his  possessions.  He 
survived  the  Composition  only  three  years,  and  passed  them  in 
attending  to  local  affairs,  improving  his  territory,  and  building 
a  new  bridge  across  the  Owenmore  at  Ballysadare,  which  was 
one  of  the  chief  works  in  which  he  was  engaged.f  This  politic 
chief  died  on  Little  Christmas  night  at  Sligo,  the  1st  of  January, 
and  was  buried  with  his  ancestors  in  the  abbey.J 

Judging  by  the  period  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  persons  he 
had  to  deal  with,  in  England  and  Ireland,  Sir  Donnell  must 
have  been  a  man  of  great  ability,  to  pass  through  life  so  success- 
fully. To  get  all  he  desired  from  Elizabeth  and  her  Council, 
while  giving  little  else  in  return  than  smooth  words  ;  to  gain  and 
retain  the  favour  of  the  English,  without  forfeiting  the  good 
opinion,  or  good  will,  of  the  Irish  ;§  to  benefit  religion  in  Sligo 


*  It  was  to  bring  him  to  compliance  that  English  troops  were  quartered  on 
him,  and  that  the  castle  of  Bundrowes  was  taken  from  him  and  sold  to 
O'Donnell.  Of  the  latter  transaction  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce  says :  Bundrowes 
was  given  to  O'Donnell  by  the  Justiciary,  who  exacted  twelve  hundred  marks 
from  him  for  it,  vel  amplius ;  and  we  would  say  that  it  was  wrong  to  sell  the 
residence  of  Brian  Luighnech's  descendants  (the  O'Connors)  to  O'Donnell,  if 
fear  allowed  us  to  say  it. 

t  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1586. 

£  O'Connor  Sligo,  i.e.,  Donnell,  son  of  Teige,  son  of  Cathal  Oge,  the  choice 
of  the  Gael  of  Erinn,  died  on  Little  Christmas  night  in  Sligo,  and  was  buried 
in  it.— Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1588. 

§  The  words  of  the  Four  Masters,  in  announcing  the  death  of  his  son,  show 
this  :  Calvagh,  the  only  son  of  O'Conor  Sligo,  died.  He  was  the  more  lamented 
in  the  territories,  because  the  noble  couple — Donnell  O'Connor  and  Mor 
O'Rorke — from  whom  this  free-born  shoot  sprang  had  no  hope  or  expectation 
of  any  other  child  after  him.  That  tract  of  territory  from  Magh  Ceidne  to 
Ceis-Coraum,  and  from  the  river  Moy  to  the  boundary  of  Breifny,  was  awaiting 
him  as  its  only  inheritor  and  comarb,  if  he  should  survive  his  father.  The 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce  say :  This  loss  has  grieved  the  heart  of  Connaught. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


by  adroitly  saving  the  monastery  from  suppression,  without 
incurring  the  imputation,  or  suspicion,  of  thwarting  the  wishes 
of  the  Queen,  in  the  matter  of  the  Reformation,  on  which  she 
had  set  her  heart ;  and  to  keep  his  country  quiet,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  O'Connor  family  united  among  themselves,  and 
united  to  him,  at  a  time,  when  the  neighbouring  families  of  the 
O'Donnells  and  the  O'Korkes  were  ruining  themselves  by  fratri- 
cidal contests  ;  all  this  bespeaks  great  gifts  of  intellect  and  will, 
great  powers  of  persuasion  and  command,  great  knowledge  of  the 
motives  which  influence  human  action,  and  great  mastery  of  the 
means  by  which  one  brings  over  others  to  one's  views* and 
interests.  In  saying  so  much,  we  have  given  Sir  Donnell 
O'Connor  all  the  praise  which  can  be  claimed  for  him ;  for,  that 
there  was  anything  heroic  about  him ;  that  he  did,  or  would, 
make  extraordinary  sacrifices  for  faith,  morality,  or  honour;  that 
he  was  ever  actuated  by  chivalrous  principles  of  any  kind,  is 
what  no  one,  acquainted  with  his  career,  can  maintain. 

It  will  be  of  use  to  refer  to  a  transaction  or  two  in  the  life  of 
Sir  Donnell  in  confirmation  of  this  view  of  his  character ;  and 
the  reference  is  likely  to  be  the  more  acceptable  to  the  reader, 
as  it  will  make  him  acquainted  with  one  of  the  O'Connor  family, 
who  has  hitherto  "  slept  in  the  shade,"  though  playing  a  rather 
remarkable  part  in  all  the  public  movements  of  his  day.  This 
is  Owen  or  Eugene  O'Connor,  the  youngest  brother  of  Sir 
Donnell. 

When  a  youth  he  was  sent  by  Sir  Donnell  to  Christ  Church, 
Oxford,  where  he  had  an  exhibition  ;  and  while  he  was  at  the 
University,  we  find  Sir  Donnell  writing  to  Cecil,  to  thank  him 
for  past  kindness  to  the  young  man,  and  to  solicit  a  continuance 
of  the  patronage. 

The  next  time  we  meet  with  Owen,  is  at  the  execution  of 
the  Indenture  between  the  Queen  and  O'Connor  Sligo,  when 
he  signed  the  instrument  as  a  witness  in  Westminster  Palace. 
After  this  he  proceeded  to  Ireland  in  quest  of  ecclesiastical 
preferment,  and  succeeded  in  his  object  to  the  "  top  of  his  bent." 
While  waiting  for  a  bishoprick,  he  passed  the  time  in  traversing 


126  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 

the  country,  and  spying  out  such  benefices  or  dignities  as 
might  be  "  concealed"  from  the  Queen,  of  which  he  unearthed 
a  goodly  number,  receiving  them  all  from  the  authorities  for 
his  pains  as  a  "  discoverer."  The  rectories  of  Skreen  and 
Castleconnor,  with  the  priory  of  Aughriss,  and  the  vicarages  of 
Dromard,  Kilmacshalgan,  and  Corcagh,  or  Templeboy,  in 
Tireragh;  the  island  of  Innismurry,  in  the  high  seas;  the 
rectory  between  the  two  bridges,  and  the  vicarage  of  Ahamlish, 
in  Carbury;  the  rectory  of  Drumcliff;  the  rectories  of  Aghanagh, 
Kilmacallan,  and  Coolea,  with  four  quarters  of  land  and  tithes 
in  Killery,  two  quarters  in  Kilmacroy,  half  a  quarter  and  tithes 
in  Drumdonay — all  in  Tirerrill ;  the  deanery  of  Achonry,  in 
Leyney;  and,  in  fine,  the  bishopric  of  Killala,  which  came  in 
good  time,  afforded  some  salve  to  his  wounded  conscience  for 
what  it  may  have  suffered,  when  he  renounced,  or  pretended 
to  renounce,  the  religion  of  his  fathers. 

Though  Owen  O'Connor  had  a  custodiam  of  the  see  of  Killala 
in  1585,  and  signed  the  Composition  of  Perrot,  that  year,  as 
Bishop  Elect,  he  was  not  consecrated,  if  consecrated  at  all,  until 
1591,  when  he  became  the  first  Protestant  bishop  of  that  ancient 
see.  At  the  same  date  he  was  appointed,  by  the  Queen,  Adminis- 
trator of  Achonry,  the  bishop  of  that  diocese  being  the  celebrated 
Eugene  O'Hart;  and  as  O'Connor  and  O'Hart  were  great 
personal  friends,  as  well  as  members,  respectively,  of  two 
families,  which  had  been  always  singularly  devoted  and  loyal 
to  one  another,  O'Connor  allowed  the  Achonry  bishop  to  manage 
the  diocese  as  he  pleased,  stipulating  only  that  himself  should 
receive  the  larger  share  of  the  revenues,*  which  seem  to  have 
been  the  only  incident  of  the  episcopal  office,  for  which  he 
cared. 

*  According  to  Lynch's  History  of  the  Prelates  of  Ireland  (Bodleian  MSS.) 
the  bishop  of  Killala,  Eugene  O'Connor  was  appointed  by  the  Queen,  on  the 
1st  December,  1591,  Administrator  of  Achonry,  and,  being  an  old  friend  of 
O'Harte,  bishop  of  Achonry,  "  allowed  him  quiet  possession  of  the  see  for  the 
sum  of  180  marks  annually."— The  Irish  Reformation  by  W.  Maziere  Brady, 
p.  159. 

If  the  whole  truth  were  known,  it  might  appear  that  O'Connor  made  this 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  127 


Owen  O'Connor  died  in  1607,  three  or  four  years  after  the 
death  of  Eugene  O'Hart.  There  is  a  tradition,  in  the  diocese 
of  Achonry,  of  a  promise  which  he  exacted,  from  Doctor  O'Hart, 
to  the  effect  that,  if  his  death  sickness  should  come  in  the 
bishop's  lifetime,  the  latter,  on  receiving  a  concerted  message, 
should  hasten  to  administer  to  him  the  last  rites  of  the  Catholic 
Church.*  If  this  was  so,  the  promise  was  secured  in  vain,  the 
bishop  being  dead  in  the  time  of  O'Connor's  need.  Considering 
now  the  career  of  Eugene  O'Connor,  and  the  part  which  Sir 
Donnell  had  in  starting  him  in  that  career,  it  would  he  hard  to 
credit  the  latter  with  much  loyalty  to  the  Catholic  faith.  And 
his  morality  was  of  a  piece  with  his  faith,  if  we  are  to  judge 
by  his  conduct,  on  the  death  of  his  eldest  brother,  Cathal  Oge, 
who  was  slain  in  open  warfare,  by  a  party  of  Scots,  who  were 

arrangement  as  much  for  the  sake  of  his  old  religion,  as  of  his  "old  friend." 
Being  still  a  Catholic  in  heart  he  may  have  never  pocketed  a  farthing  of  the 
180  marks;  the  alleged  contract  with  Bishop  Hart  being  probably  a  blind  to 
keep  the  eyes  of  the  Government  off  that  zealous  and  able  prelate  while 
labouring  for  the  maintenance  of  the  persecuted  religion. 

It  is  right  to  observe  that  there  is  no  sufficient  proof  of  Owen  O'Connor 
having  been  ever  either  ordained  priest  or  consecrated  bishop.  The  addition 
of  "  cleric,"  which  he  appended  to  his  name,  when  signing,  as  a  witness,  the 
indenture  between  the  Queen  and  his  brother,  Sir  Donnell,  does  not  imply 
ordination,  but  only  the  ceremony  of  tonsure  ;  nor  does  the  title  of  Dean  of 
Achonry,  as  Robert  Weston,  about  the  same  time,  though  not  an  ecclesiastic, 
was  styled  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  (Mason's  History  of  St.  Patrick's,  p.  170) ; 
while  he  might  also  be  called  Bishop  of  Killala,  though  a  layman  like  Dr. 
Nehemias  O'Donnellan,  of  whom  Teige  O'Dugan,  the  family  genealogist, 
writes  in  his  pedigree  of  the  O'Donellans  : — "  Queen  Elizabeth  granted  him 
the  living  of  Tuam,  and  though  he  never  was  in  holy  orders  he  was  called 
Archbishop  of  Tuam" — (Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy  Many,  p.  171).  As  we  never 
hear  of  Eugene  O'Connor  having  attempted  the  performance  of  any  clerical 
function,  he  seems  to  have  regarded  his  deaconship  and  episcopate  as  mere 
civil  concerns,  and  sources  of  income :  his  whole  object,  says  Archdeacon 
Lynch,  "being  to  enjoy  riches  and  pleasures,"  " ut  se  divitiis  et  voluptatibus 
expleret" 

*  This  tradition  has  nearly  died  out,  though  very  rife,  some  thirty  years  ago, 
when  the  writer  heard  it  in  all  its  particulars  from  Rev.  John  Flynn,  Parish 
Priest  of  Curry.  The  date  of  Eugene  O'Connor's  death  is  fixed  by  a  letter 
written  in  1607  by  Sir  Arthur  Chichester  to  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  in  which  we 
read,  "  There  is  another  bishoprick  fallen  void  in  Connaught  by  the  death  of 
Owen  O'Connor,  uncle  to  Sir  Donough  O'Connor  Sligo." 


128  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


then  in  the  pay  of  Sir  Nicholas  Malbie,  Governor  of  Connaught. 
Unlike  many  sons  of  Irish  chieftains,  Donnell  and  Cathal  Oge 
O'Connor  were  fraternally  attached  and  true  to  each  other,  all 
through  life.  In  the  circumstances,  it  was  only  to  be  expected, 
that  Donnell  should  feel  deeply  the  tragic  end  of  a  brother 
whom  he  loved  ardently,  and  no  one  could  blame  him  for 
showing  his  feelings  in  every  legitimate  way.  But  instead  of 
this,  he  avenged  Cathal  Oge's  death  in  a  manner  opposed, 
apparently,  to  the  laws  of  nature,  religion,  and  honour. 

Sir  Nicholas  Malbie,  deciding  about  this  time  to  invade  the 
territories  of  O'Rorke,  who  was  very  hostile  and  troublesome  to 
the  English,  sent  some  of  the  English  troops,  that  were  to  take 
part  in  the  expedition,  and,  with  them,  the  party  of  Scotch  that 
slew  Cathal  Oge,  to  the  county  of  Sligo  to  remain  for  a  little, 
under  the  care  and  protection  of  Sir  Donnell,  with  whom  the 
Governor  was  then  at  peace  and  in  alliance.  Dissembling  his 
feelings  and  intentions,  Sir  Donnell  distributed  those  troops  in 
cantonments  through  the  county,  that  he  might  be  the  more 
able,  when  they  were  thus  divided,  to  carry  out  his  design  ;  and 
having  gained  over  to  the  plot  the  English  officers,  his  troops 
and  theirs  fell  on  the  unfortunate  Scots,  "  while  sleeping  in 
their  beds  and  couches/'  and  "slew  Alexander  and  a  great 
number  of  his  people."  It  is  evident  that  Malbie  connived  at 
the  massacre,  if  he  was  not  its  chief  instigator,  in  order  to  get 
rid  of  the  Scots,"  who  were  very  obnoxious  to  the  English 
authorities  in  Ireland.*  Anyhow  this  treacherous  proceeding 

*  John  O'Donovan  mistakes  the  nature  of  this  transaction,  and  suggests  an 
emendation  of  the  text  to  bear  him  out.  "  There  must  be  some  error  here,"  says 
he,  "  as  Alexander  and  his  people  were  in  the  service  of  Sir  Nicholas  Malbie  on 
this  occasion,  It  should  evidently  be,  when  O'Connor  Sligo  had  received 
intelligence  that  the  people  of  Sir  Nicholas  were  thus  situated,"  &c.— Note  in 
Four  Masters,  1581.  Had  O'Donovan  thought  better  of  the  matter,  and  read 
the  version  of  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  he  would  have  seen  that  there  was  no 
"error"  in  the  statement  of  the  Four  Masters,  and  that  the  people  of  Sir 
Nicholas  had  treacherously  employed  their  swords  against  their  own  comrades. 
The  words  of  Loch  Ce  are,  "  A  great  army  was  sent  to  Lower  Connaught  by  the 
Governor  of  the  Province  ....  And  there  were  five  or  six  hundred  Scots 
with  the  sons  of  Donal  Ballagh  McDonnell.  And  all  the  Saxons  that  were 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  129 


places  the  morality  of  Sir  Donnell  O'Connor  in  a  very  unamiable 
light.  Sir  Donnell,  it  may  be  stated,  received  his  knight- 
hood on  the  4th  April,  1567,  from  the  Lord  Deputy,  Sir  Henry 
Sydney,  at  Loughrea,  Hugh  O'Donnell  receiving  a  similar 
honour  at  the  same  time  and  place  (Carew  MS.  Vol.  1575- 
1588,  p.  149). 

In  passing  away  from  Sir  Donnell,  who  ruled  Sligo,  first  as  a 
Celtic  chief,  and  afterwards  by  authority  of  English  law,  we 
should  try  to  carry  with  us  a  correct  idea  of  the  status  of  the 
O'Connor  Sligo  family,  as  well  under  the  old,  as  under  the  new 
regime.  Before  conforming  to  English  laws  and  customs  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  O'Connor  family  consisted  of  several 
branches,  all  the  male  members  of  which  were  eligible  for  the 
position  of  chief.  The  branches  at  this  time  were  the  descen- 
dants of  the  Donnell  O'Connor,  who  died  in  1395 ;  the 
O'Connors,  who  preceded  him,  including  the  families  of  Cathal 
King  of  Connaught,  and  of  his  heroic  son,  Cathal  Oge,  having 
disappeared  from  Lower  Connaught  and  from  history.  This 


along  with  the  Captains  went  into  the  county  Sligo  .  .  .  Soon  after  that 
O'Conor  Sligo  entreated  all  the  Saxon  captains  that  were  there  to  join  him. 
The  chieftains  of  Lower  Connaught  along  with  O'Couor  Sligo  and  those  Saxons 
attacked  the  Scots,"  &c. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  1581. 

In  Major  Wood  Martin's  History  of  Sligo  it  is  said,  "  In  the  Chronicle  of 
Lough  Key  shame  is  expressed  for  0 'Conor's  part  in  the  crime."  The  direct 
opposite  is  the  fact ;  for  while  blaming  others  the  annalists  excuse  O'Connor. 
Their  words  are,  "  It  cannot  be  said  that  O'Conor  was  not  justified  in  his  own 
share  of  it." 

We  read  in  Major  Wood  Martin's  History  of  Sligo,  "Sir  Donald  O'Conor 
died  at  the  close  of  1587 "  (recte  31  December).  "  His  uncle  Donough 
assumed  the  title,  considering  himself  to  be  the  heir  by  Brehon  law,  but  Bing- 
ham  would  not  listen  to  his  claim,  and  expelled  him  from  the  country; 
Donough  crossed  the  channel  to  present  his  claims  to  Elizabeth  in  person,  and 
the  commission  sent  into  the  county  after  the  death  of  O'Conor  "  to  enquire  hi3 
heir  against  the  title  of  the  Crown,  found  in  favour  of  Donough  Mac  Gale  Oge 
O'Conor,  nephew  of  the  deceased.  This  "uncle  Donough,"  and  his  "Brehon 
law  title,"  and  his  "expulsion"  from  the  country  are  all  myths.  Donough 
O'Connor  was  not  the  uncle  but  the  nephew  of  Sir  Donnell;  he  was  not 
"  expelled  "  the  county  by  Bingham,  but  left  of  his  own  accord,  for  the  Court 
of  Elizabeth  ;  nor  did  he  invoke  the  "  Brehon  law,"  but  the  law  of  the  land — 
which,  in  this  matter,  was  the  law  of  England. 

VOL.  I.  I 


130  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Donnell  had  four  sons  who  were  successively  Lords  of  Sligo — 
Murtough  Baccagh,  Brian,  Owen,  and  Turlough  Carrach — 
and  whose  respective  families  settled  in  different  parts  of 
Carbury — the  head-quarters  of  Murtough  Baccach's  being 
Dunally ;  of  Brian's,  Grange  of  Coolerra;  of  Owen's,  Castletown 
and  Grange  of  Lower  Carbury ;  and  of  Turlough  Carrach's, 
Askelly.  All  these  shared  alike  the  blood  and  dignity  of  the 
O'Connor  Sligo  family,  and  stood  in  these  respects  on  the  same 
level,  till  one  of  them  furnished  the  Chief,  who  by  his  election 
became  paramount  as  well  over  the  O'Connors,  as  over  the 
other  chiefs  of  Lower  Connaught,  and  had  added  to  his  patri- 
monial possessions  the  lands  and  revenues  provided  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  chief.  The  O'Connor  Sligo,  once  elected, 
or  in  office,  had  authority  over  the  entire  of  Carbury  and  over 
Leyney,  Tirerrill,  Corran,  Coolavin  and  Tireragh ;  and  received 
tribute  not  only  from  the  local  chiefs  of  Carbury,  but  also  from 
the  chiefs  of  the  other  territories,  from  the  O'Haras  of  Leyney, 
the  McDonoghs  of  Tirerrill  and  Corran,  the  O'Garas  of  Coolavin, 
and  the  O'Dowds  and  McSweenys  of  Tireragh.  And  he 
possessed,  besides,  castles  and  lands  in  these  territories — in 
Leyney,  Meemlough  ;  in  Tirerrill,  Collooney ;  in  Corran, 
Ballymote ;  in  Coolavin,  Knocknaskeagh ;  and  in  Tireragh 
Buninna. 

To  compensate  for  all  those  rights  and  revenues,  and  to  meet 
the  equities  of  the  case,  Perrott  in  his  Composition,  passed  by 
letters  patent  to  Sir  Donnell  O'Connor,  and  to  "  the  heirs  male 
of  the  body  of  his  father,  the  castell  or  manor  of  Slego  in  the 
barony  of  Carbry  ;  and  Meynlaghe  (Meemlough)  in  the  barony 
of  Magherylenye  (Leyney) ;  and  all  the  lands  appertayning  as 
well  to  the  name  and  calling  of  O'Connor  Sligo,  as  also  which, 
belong  or  appertayneth  to  Sleight  Owine  O'Connor  from  whom 
the  said  Sir  Donnell  is  said  to  be  descended ;  also  a  yearly 
rentcharge  of  13s.  4d.  going  out  of  every  quarter  of  the  residue 
of  the  said  quarters  of  the  lands  of  Sleight  Muryertaghe, 
Sleight  Briene,  and  Sleight  Tirlaghe  Carragh  O'Connor ;  and 
also  8s.  out  of  every  quarter  of  154  quarters  in  the  barony  of 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  131 


Tireragh;  10s.  out  of  every  quarter  of  20  quarters  in  the 
barony  of  Coolavin  ;  Gs.  lOd.  out  of  every  quarter  of  156 
quarters  in  the  barony  of  Magheryleynie ;  6s.  6d.  out  of  every 
quarter  of  166  quarters  in  the  barony  of  Tirreryelle;  and 
9s.  3d.  out  of  every  quarter  of  110  quarters  in  the  barony  of 
Corren."* 

This  assessment,  considering  the  value  of  money  at  the 
time,  secured  to  Sir  Donnell  an  immense  revenue ;  and  with 
this  princely  income  and  his  proud  pre-eminence  over  every- 
body in  the  county  before  our  mind,  we  can  understand  why 
he  declined  an  earldom  proffered  by  the  Government,  feeling 
that  the  title  would  be  rather  a  diminution  than  an  increase 
of  his  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.f 

It  is  clear  that  the  O'Connors  Sligo  rose  in  the  sixteenth 
century  above  the  other  O'Connors  of  the  country,  as  much  as 
they  had  risen  in  the  fou  rteenth,  when  Cathal  became  King  of 
Connaught.  Moore,  speaking  of  Sir  Donnell's  father,  Teige, 
calls  him  "  the  great  O'Connor  of  Connaught,"  and  adds,  "  This 
chief,  called  the  great  O'Connor  of  Connaught,  was  the  most 
powerful  of  the  five  chieftains  of  that  name ;  the  four  others 
being  O'Connor  of  Offaley,  O'Connor  Roe,  O'Connor  Don,  and 
O'Connor  Corcomroe  "  (History  of  Ireland,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  276). 

The  next  O'Connor  Sligo  was  Donough,  nephew  of  the  de- 
ceased Sir  Donnell,  and  son  of  Cathal  Oge,  Sir  DonnelFs  eldest 
brother.  The  succession  was  not  effected  without  great  opposi- 
tion, on  the  part  of  Sir  Richard  Bingham,  who  maintained,  in 
divers  official  documents,  that  Donough  was  base-born,  and 
without  right  to  the  inheritance.  In  a  letter  of  Sir  Richard's, 

*  These  arrangements  are  set  out  at  length  in  the  Indenture  of  Composition 
between  Sir  John  Perrott  and  the  magnates  of  Sligo.  Hardiman,  in  his  edition 
of  O'Flaherty's  West  Connaught,  professes  to  giv  e  a  copy  of  the  document,  but 
the  writer,  fancying  he  saw  gaps  in  the  enumeration  of  the  lands  of  the  county, 
examined  the  original  roll,  and  found  sundry  denominations  entirely  omitted, 
so  that  the  printed  copy  in  West  Connaught  is  quite  untrustworthy. 

f  "Daniel  More  O'Connor  was  regarded  with  such  favour  by  the  Queen,  that 
when  he  refused  the  diploma  of  Earl,  she  granted  to  him  the  title  of  O'Connor 
Sligo." — Archdeacon  Lynch.— De  Prcesulibus  Hibernia  (Bodleian  manuscript.) 


132  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


dated  Athlone,  May  21,  1588,  and  addressed  to  the  Earl  of 
Leicester,  he  says,  "  The  Commission  sent  down  into  Sligo  for 
the  inquiry  of  Sir  Donnell  O'Connor  Sligo,  after  his  death,  pro- 
ceeded in  favour  of  Donnogh  McCale  Oge  against  the  title  of  her 
Majesty  in  these  lands.  The  heir  is  base-born  and  illegitimate, 
and  the  land,  especially  Sligo  itself,  by  descent  and  lawful  in- 
heritance, is  now  thrown  into  the  lap  of  her  Majesty.  As  the 
haven  and  castle  are  of  so  great  importance,  lying  in  the  only 
strait  through  which  the  Scots  accustom  to  annoy  the  province, 
I  hope  you  will  not  suffer  it  to  be  conveyed  from  her  Highness. 
It  may  be  some  will  inform  thither,  I  mean  such  as  have  re- 
ceived rewards,  that  the  taking  of  this  from  Donnogh  O'Connor 
may  breed  stirs  among  the  Irishry.  But  the  people  of  this 
province  are  dejected  and  made  subject  to  the  sword.  Yet,  I 
wish  the  young  man  should  have  part  or  all  of  his  uncle's  lands, 
the  castle  and  town  of  Sligo  only  excepted,  and  hold  the  same 
as  a  free  gift  in  respect  of  his  uncle's  loyalty."  Bingham  wrote 
additional  letters  on  the  subject,  some  addressed  to  Burghley 
alone,  and  some  to  him  and  the  other  Lords  of  the  Council  in 
England ;  and  in  all  he  advances  the  same  arguments  against 
Donough's  suit;  that  he  was  illegitimate,  that  he  could  not  claim 
under  Sir  DonnelFs  patent,  and,  above  all,  that  Sligo  being 
"  the  key  and  door  of  Connaught,"  "  the  entrance  and  passage 
of  that  province,"  "  set  in  the  fore-front  of  the  ill-affected,"  was 
too  important  a  place  to  be  allowed  out  of  the  Queen's  possession, 
in  which,  "  by  the  providence  of  God/'  it  was  now  placed. 

Fortunately,  Donough  O'Connor  had  a  "  friend  in  court,"  who 
was  able  and  willing  to  stand  by  him,  even  against  so  powerful 
a  man  as  Sir  Richard  Bingham.  This  was  the  Lord  Deputy, 
Sir  John  Perrott,  whose  generous  nature  led  him,  during  his 
administration,  to  hold  the  balance  fair  between  all  classes 
under  his  authority,  and  to  protect  the  old  Irish  from  injustice 
and  oppression  at  the  hands  of  the  English  and  Anglo-Irish, 
whether  these  were  in  a  private  or  in  an  official  station.  It  was 
he  who  formed  the  Commission  to  which  Bingham,  in  the  letter 
to  Lord  Leicester,  refers,  and  which  throws  most  important 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  133 


light  on  the  family  history  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo.  The 
members  of  this  Commission  were  all  that  could  be  desired,  in 
order  to  place  its  acts  and  decisions  beyond  the  reach  of  cavil  or 
suspicion,  the  commissioners  being  the  Bishops  of  Meath  and 
Kilmore ;  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Bench  ;  the  Chief 
Baron  of  the  Exchequer;  the  Second  Justice  of  the  Common 
Bench  ;  the  Sergeant-at-Law ;  the  Attorney- General ;  and  a  lay 
gentleman,  named  John  Elliot,  probably  the  secretary.  This 
Commission,  which  opened  at  Sligo  on  the  4th  March,  1588, 
after  hearing  witnesses,  finds,  in  direct  contradiction  to  the 
assertions  of  Sir  Richard  Bingham,  Cathal  Oge  O'Connor  and 
his  son,  Donough,  to  be  legitimate;  Donough  to  be  the  next 
-male  heir  of  his  grandfather,  Teige  ;  and,  consequently,  to  inherit, 
by  law  and  right,  under  the  patent  of  Elizabeth. 

Notwithstanding  this  finding,  Bingham  still  maintained  the 
illegitimacy  of  both  father  and  son.  And  even  an  Exchequer 
Inquisition,  sped  in  Sligo  under  John  Crofton,  but  controlled 
by  Bingham,  arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  Without  im- 
puting corrupt  motives  to  Bingham  and  Crofton — which  it  is 
hard  to  avoid  doing — they  may,  perhaps,  be  absolved  from  the 
charge  of  deliberate  wrong-doing  in  consideration  of  their  igno- 
rance of  law,  and  particularly  of  Canon  Law,  on  which  the  case 
in  question  mainly  depended. 

As  the  impediment  of  clandestinity,  for  want  of  promulga- 
tion, or,  at  all  events,  of  sufficient  promulgation,  was  hardly  in 
force  at  the  time  in  the  province,  marriage  would  rest  for  its  validity 
on  the  consent  of  the  parties  marrying,  and  not  on  its  celebra- 
bration  in  facie  ecclesice,  or  before  the  person  appointed  by  the 
State  to  officiate.  If  two  qualified  persons  pledged  their  mutual 
consent,  that  consent,  whether  given  in  public  or  in  private, 
-with  or  without  solemnities,  in  the  presence  or  in  the  absence 
of  the  minister  of  religion,  formed  the  marriage  contract,  and 
constituted  the  parties  man  and  wife.  Laymen,  unacquainted 
with  this  principle,  and  accustomed  to  solemnization  of  marriage 
in  churches,  might  not  recognize  marriages  devoid  of  this 
solemnity,  and  resting  on  consent  alone;  whereas  jurists  and 


134  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 

canonists,  able  to  distinguish  between  what  is  essential  and  what 
is  accidental,  would  feel  themselves  bound  to  admit  their 
validity.  It  is  in  this  way,  no  doubt,  we  are  to  account  for  the 
different  opinions  in  regard  to  the  legitimacy  of  Cathal  Oge  and 
his  son.  To  avoid  what  might  be  taken  for  an  act  of  apostacy, 
he  would  not  have  his  marriage  celebrated  in  one  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan churches,  and  had  it  performed  privately,  in  the  presence, 
probably,  of  a  priest,  which,  with  Catholics,  was  the  usual  way  of 
marrying  at  the  time ;  *  and  the  Commissioners,  having  the 
facts  established  before  them  in  evidence,  pronounced  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Canon  Law,  for  the  validity  of  the  contract ;  while 
others,  either  ignorant  of  the  facts,  or  unable  to  make  the  neces- 
sary distinction  between  substance  and  form,  regarded  the 
proceedings  as  null  and  void. 

But  as  Sir  John  Perrott  left  Ireland  soon  after  the  decision  of 
the  Commission,  Bingham  was  able  to  carry  out  his  wishes 
against  O'Connor,  who  betook  himself  for  redress  to  England, 
where,  it  would  appear,  he  remained  till  the  year  1596,  when, 
on  Sir  Richard  being  disgraced  and  recalled,  O'Connor  came 
back  in  triumph,  and  accompanied  by  a  great  number  of  English- 
men. Whether  it  was  that  long  residence  in  England  had  made 
Sir  Donough  thoroughly  English  in  his  views  and  wishes,  or 
that  he  knew  his  honours  and  possessions  to  depend  on  the 
services  he  should  now  render  to  the  Queen,  he  devoted  himself, 
from  his  arrival  in  Ireland,  with  the  greatest  zeal,  to  promote 
her  interests  throughout  the  country.  In  the  prosecution  of 
this  design,  he  co-operated  in  all  things  with  the  new  Governor 
of  Connaught,  Sir  Conyers  Clifford ;  brought  over,  through  his 
brother-in-law,  Theobald-na-Long,  many  of  the  Burkes  of 
Tyrawley  to  the  side  of  the  English  ;  and  formed  of  them,  the 
McDonoughs,  O' Harts,  and  MacDermotts,  a  powerful  party, 


*  Middleton  (Marmaduke),  the  Protestant  Bishop  of  Waterford,  writes  to 
Walsingham  in  1580: — "No  marriage  agreeing  with  God's  law  and  her 
Majesty's  proceedings,  for  either  they  marry  in  houses,  with  Masses,  or  else 
before  two  or  three  laymen  without  any  minister  taking  of  hands,  and  so  they 
live  as  man  and  wife." — Brady's  State  Church  in  Ireland,  p.  74. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  135 


against  Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell,   who  was  the  most  active  and 
troublesome  antagonist  the  English  had  in  the  province. 

Having  thus  proved  his  loyalty,  and  having  received  a  severe 
wound,  while  fighting  against  Red  Hugh  on  the  banks  of  the 
Erne,  he  went  over,  about  the  Christmas  of  1597,  to  England, 
where  his  wife  lived,  but  returned  to  Ireland  in  the  spring  of  the 
following  year,  and  served  under  Essex  for  some  time  in  Munster, 
in  the  campaign  against  Desmond.  After  a  few  months  he 
came  to  the  county  Sligo;  and,  Collooney  being  the  only  castle 
at  his  service  in  the  district,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  it. 
Finding  O'Connor  thus  within  reach,  O'Donnell  lost  no  time  in 
attacking  him.  Supported  by  his  sturdy  ally  and  cousin,  Brian 
Oge  O'Rorke,  he  besieged  the  castle  of  Collooney,  defeated  and 
slew  Sir  Conyers  Clifford,  who  was  hastening,  with  considerable 
forces,  to  raise  the  siege,  and,  sending  Clifford's  head  into  the 
castle,  in  witness  of  the  defeat  of  the  English,  forced  O'Connor 
to  join  the  confederacy  of  the  Ulster  and  Connaught  chiefs. 
This  alliance,  which  O'Donnell  spared  no  pains  to  cultivate,  and 
to  which  O'Connor,  very  probably,  was  never  over-much  attached 
at  heart,  lasted  for  about  two  years,  during  which  the  Sligo  chief 
co-operated  with  the  Irish,  accompanied,  at  the  head  of  the 
troops  of  Lower  Connaught,  Red  Hugh  in  an  expedition  to 
Thomond,  and  rendered  him  other  important  services,  more 
especially  in  securing  and  covering  the  passage  of  the  Northern 
forces  through  Sligo.  In  1601,  however,  when  Mountjoy  was 
drawing  the  net  round  the  Irish  chiefs,  O'Donnell  suddenly 
arrested  Donough  O'Connor,  and  confined  him  in  an  island  of 
Lough  Esk,  near  Donegal,  alleging  that  he  was  betraying  the 
Irish,  and  acting  as  a  spy  for  the  English  authorities ;  but, 
though  this  disgraceful  charge  may  derive  some  appearance  of 
probability  from  the  well-known  practices  of  the  English 
authorities  at  the  time,  it  is  only  fair  to  add,  that  there  is  no 
proof  whatever  of  Donough 's  criminality  except  the  allegation 
of  O'Donnell,  who  might  have  been  easily  deceived  in  such  a 
matter.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  appear  from  the  following 


13G  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


statement  of  Lord  Mountjoy  and  the  Council,  that  O'Connor 
had  not  done  anything  to  help  the  English,  though  they  were 
trying  to  frighten  him  into  compliance  with  their  wishes: — 
"  We  resolve  to  threaten  O'Connor  Sligo,  who  had  often  showed 
himself  desirous  to  submit  himself,  upon  any  appearance  of  his 
defence,  that  if  he  do  not  presently  declare  himself  against 
O'Donnell  before  the  plantation  of  Ballishannon,  he  shall 
despair  for  ever  to  be  received  to  mercy."  It  was  probably  the 
letter  which  conveyed  this  threat  to  O'Connor  that  led  to  his 
arrest,  for,  in  a  communication  of  Mountjoy 's  to  Sir  Oliver 
Lambert,  Governor  of  Connaught,  we  read : — "  O'Connor  Sligo 
was  restrained  of  his  liberty  upon  a  letter  I  sent  to  him,  so  that 
he  hath  a  just  pretext  for  standing  out."  The  Sligo  chief  was 
rather  unfortunate  in  his  correspondence,  for,  while  the  letter  of 
Mountjoy  led  to  his  captivity,  a  letter  of  O'Neill,  written  in 
reply  to  O'Connor,  and  intercepted  by  the  English  authorities, 
brought  the  edge  of  the  Government  upon  him. 

Whether  guilty  or  innocent  of  the  complicity  with  which 
O'Donnell  charged  him,  he  was  kept  in  durance,  on  Lough 
Esk,  so  cruelly  fettered  that  his  legs  were  nearly  rotted  by  the 
irons — the  imprisonment  lasting  about  two  years,  two  eventful 
years ;  for  the  battle  of  Kinsale  and  the  departure  of  Red  Hugh 
to  Spain  took  place  while  he  was  in  captivity.  In  the  absence 
of  Red  Hugh,  his  brother,  Rory,  who  occupied  his  place, 
liberated  O'Connor  Sligo,  when  the  two  chiefs  agreed  and 
engaged  to  co-operate  with  one  another  in  their  public  proceed- 
ings in  future.  To  this  engagement  they  were  faithful,  and,  as 
allies,  fought  against,  and  defeated  the  English  in  a  battle  on 
the  Curlews,  as  well  as  in  some  smaller  affairs  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ballysadare ;  but  learning,  after  some  months, 
that  Red  Hugh  had  died  in  Spain,  and  receiving  at  the  same 
time  favourable  offers  from  Mountjoy,  on  condition  that  they 
relinquished  hostilities  and  came  in,  they  proceeded  together 
to  Athlone,  where  the  Lord  Deputy  then  was,  and  made  their 
submission  to  the  Queen,  O'Connor,  on  the  occasion,  receiving 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  137 


his  lands  by  an  English  patent,  dated  1602,  the  44th  year  of 
Elizabeth* 

From  Athlone,  when  the  weighty  business  on  hands  was 
completed,  he  returned  to  Sligo,  and  set  himself  to  the  work 
of  re-establishing  his  broken  fortunes.  Considering  that  his 
possessions  in  the  country  were  so  long  deprived  of  supervision 
and  care,  that  in  the  absence  of  the  owner  they  were  exposed 
to  injury  from  friends  and  enemies,  and  that  a  devastating 
war  raged  over  the  country  for  several  years,  it  is  easy  to 
understand  that  the  task  was  a  most  arduous  one  ;  and  though 
people  may  think  that  the  life  he  had  led,  conversant  only  with 
war  and  politics,  unfitted  him  for  the  duty  of  retrieving  and 
rearranging  a  vast  landed  estate,  where  everything  was  in 
disorder,  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  he  performed  his  part 

*  The  following  is  the  form  of  submission  sworn  to  and  subscribed  by 
O'Connor  Sligo,  Rory  O'Donnell,  the  Flahertys,  MacDermotts  of  the  Curlews, 
Conor  Roe,  and  others,  on  the  4th  of  December,  and  some  subsequent  days 
(Anno  45  Elizabeth) : — 

"  That  I  doo  acknowledge  Elizabeth  by  the  grace  of  God  Queen  of  England, 
France,  and  Ireland,  to  be  the  only  true,  absolute,  and  sovereign  Lady  of  the 
realme  of  Ireland,  and  of  every  part,  and  of  all  the  people  thereof,  unto  whose 
gracious  mercy  I  doo  submit  myself,  my  lands,  and  goods,  and  with  all  faithful 
repentance  for  my  unnatural  disobedience  unto  her  royal  Majesty  doo  most 
earnestly  implore  her  mercy  and  pardon  for  myself,  and  such  of  my  fellows  as 
with  me  have  been  reduced  to  this  wicked  rebellion. 

"  Further  I  doo  renounce  all  and  any  manner  of  obedience  unto  any  other 
power  or  potentate,  which  I  owe  only  to  my  said  dread  sovereign  Elizabeth, 
and  utterly  abjure  any  dependency  and  adherence  to  any  of  her  enemies 
whatsoever,  or  disloyal  subjects,  and  doo  promise,  swear,  and  vow  from  hence- 
forth to  live  in  her  subjection,  in  all  dutie  and  obedience,  and  to  use  my  best 
endeavours  to  the  uttermost  of  my  power,  to  withstand  and  confound  any 
enemy  either  foreign  or  domestic,  that  shall  attempt  anything  against  the 
sacred  person  or  estate  of  her  Majesty,  or  the  hurt  of  her  faithful  and  obedient 
subjects,  and  especially  and  namely  I  do  renounce  (as  before)  and  promise  my 
endeavours  against  the  King  of  Spain,  and  the  arch-traitor,  the  Earl  of 
Tyrone.  ' 

' '  All  this  as  I  doo  upon  my  salvation  swear,  so  if  I  do  herein  break  my  oath, 
I  doo  acknowledge  myself  not  only  to  be  worthy  of  all  infamy  and  extreme 
punishment,  but  to  be  ever  after  accounted  unworthy  of  the  name  of  a  Chris- 
tian, or  the  society  of  men  ;  to  the  which  as  I  have  unfainedly  sworn,  so  I  doo 
now  in  witness  whereof  set  to  my  hand." — Harris's  Collectanea  de  Rebus 
Hibernicis,  Vol.  V.,  p.  426.  (Manuscript  in  the  Dublin  City  Library.) 


138  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


with  all  the  tact  and  skill  of  a  lawyer  or  land  agent.  Finding 
considerable  scopes  of  his  inheritance  in  the  hands  of  Sir 
William  Taaffe,  who  received  them  by  royal  grant  or  other 
legal  transfer,  Sir  Donough  bought  them  back  ;  and  being 
short  of  money  to  pay  for  all  he  purchased,  he  raised  the  neces- 
sary funds  by  mortgaging  other  lands  to  friends  and  relatives, 
who  were  disposed  to  allow  exceptional  facilities  for  redeeming 
the  mortgage. 

While  engaged  in  these  transactions,  he  learned  that  Sir 
James  Fullerton  had  received  a  royal  grant  of 'Bally mote,  and  the 
extensive  mensal  lands  of  its  castle,  which  Sir  Donough 
regarded  as  an  injury  done  to  himself;  but  though  he  com- 
plained through  Viscount  Cranbourne,  and  claimed  the  lands 
in  question  as  belonging  to  O'Connor  Sligo's  inheritance,  he 
complained  and  claimed  in  vain.  Nor  could  he  be  much  sur- 
prised at  this,  for  Ballymote  was  excepted  out  of  the  lands 
passed  in  Sir  Donnell  O'Connor's  patent,  as  Bally  shannon, 
quite  recently,  was  reserved,  when  Rory  O'Donnell  was 
receiving  back  Tirconnell  from  the  Crown.  Indeed  it  was 
the  practice  of  English  statesmen  at  this  time,  in  regranting 
lands  to  Irish  chiefs,  to  reserve  one  or  more  strong  places,  to 
be  committed  to  some  official  or  other  trusted  person,  on  whom, 
under  all  circumstances,  they  could  rely. 

Sir  Donough  was  married  to  Lady  Eleanor  Butler,  the- 
Countess  of  Desmond,  the  second  wife  and  the  relict  of  the 
unfortunate  Earl  Gerald,  "  ingens  rebellibus  exemplar."  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Countess  was  a  clever,  intriguing, 
ambitious  woman,  and  rather  ill  affected  to  the  Government, 
which  seems  natural  enough,  when  one  calls  to  mind  the  fate 
of  her  late  husband.  A  circumstance  that  gives  colour  to  this 
view  of  her  character  is,  that  she  wrote  private  letters  herself, 
and  induced  Sir  Donough  to  write  ones,  urging  her  daughter, 
Lady  Joan,  to  accept  O'Donnell  for  her  husband,  and  sent  a 
confidential  waiting  woman  of  hers  to  convey  the  daughter 
away  ;  and  when  Sir  George  Carew  spoiled  her  game  by  lodging 
the  messenger  in  gaol  and  committing  Lady  Joan  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


custody  of  a  Limerick  Alderman  for  safe-keeping,  the  Countess, 
on  being  taxed  with  the  proceeding,  averred  that  her  sole 
object  was  to  make  a  good  and  loyal  subject  of  O'Donnell. 
But  Carew  was  not  such  a  simpleton  as  to  believe  this  version 
of  the  affair,  and  divined  the  true  motive  of  the  proceeding, 
"This  marriage,"  says  he,  "with  O'Donnell,  the  messenger 
pretends  was  contracted  by  the  Countess  to  the  end  to  reduce 
him  to  subjection  ....  but  as  I  suppose,  and  the  rest  of  the 
council,  it  can  be  to  no  other  end  intended  than  to  kindle  new 
fire  in  this  province."  The  author  of  Pacata  Hibernia,  after 
detailing  the  means  employed  by  Carew  to  find  out  the  true 
nature  of  this  intrigue,  goes  on  to  say :  "  The  old  craftie 
Countesse  understanding  that  this  complot  was  discovered, 
pretended  that  her  indeavours  in  seeking  to  effect  this  Mar- 
riage, tended  to  no  other  end  but  to  reduce  O'Donnell  to  be  a 
Subject,  although  indeede  there  was  nothing  lesse  meant;  The 
President  and  Councell  upon  the  discovery  (for  preventing  such 
further  mischiefe  as  they  foresawe  might  arise  by  this  marriage) 
committed  the  Lady  Joane  to  an  Alderman's  House,  and  Marie 
ny  Shye  (the  said  Countesse  servant)  close  prisoner  in  the 
Gaoll,  till  time  and  occasion  should  minister  further  oppor- 
tunitie  to  deale  in  that  affaire  of  so  great  importance."  * 

The  Countess  had  several  children  by  her  first  husband. 
O'Donovan  seems  to  think  there  were  only  two  daughters,  but 
this  is  a  mistake,  for  there  were  five ; — Margaret,  married  to 
Dermod  O'Conor  Don ;  Joan,  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking, 
to  Dermod  O'Sullevan  ;  Catherine,  to  Sir  Daniel  O'Brien  ;  Ellen, 
first  to  Donnell  O'Connor  Sligo,  secondly  to  Sir  Robert  Cressy, 
and  thirdly,  to  Lord  Dunboyne ;  and  Ellice,  to  Sir  Valentine 
Browne.  There  was  an  only  son,  James  FitzGerald,  an  incident 

*  Pacata  Hibernia.  Reprinted  in  Dublin,  1810,  from  the  original  edition  of 
1633,  pp.  194,  195. 

Judging  by  Father  Mooney's  sketch  of  Red  Hugh,  he  would  make  an  eligible 
husband.  "He  was  of  middle  stature,"  eays  the  Father,  "ruddy,  of  comely 
grace,  and  beautiful  to  behold.  His  voice  was  like  the  clarion  of  a  silver 
trumpet,  and  his  morals  unimpeachable." — Father  Meehan'a  Earls  of  Tyrone 
and  Tyrconnell. 


140  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


in  whose  life  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  religious  feeling  in 
Ireland  in  his  day.  Taken  to  England  by  the  government  on 
his  father's  death,  and  brought  up  a  Protestant,  Elizabeth  meant, 
all  along,  to  use  him,  in  due  time,  for  decoying  the  inhabitants 
of  Munster  to  her  views  in  religion  and  politics ;  and  when  what 
she  thought  the  right  moment  had  arrived,  she  sent  the  young 
man  over  to  Sir  George  Carew,  the  President  of  the  province, 
authorizing  that  official  to  introduce  him  to  the  people  as  heir  of 
their  favourite  Desmonds.  It  was  on  a  Saturday  evening  he 
arrived  at  Kilmallock,  and  the  people  who,  ignorant  of  his 
religion,  had  flocked  from  all  sides  to  welcome  him,  received  him 
as  an  angel  from  heaven  ;  but,  when  they  found  him  attending 
Protestant  service  the  following  day,  they  became  so  enraged, 
that  they  loaded  him  with  all  kinds  of  indignities  and  outrages, 
not  only  yelling  at  him,  whenever  he  appeared  in  public,  but 
carrying  their  contempt  and  hate  so  far  as  to  spit  upon  him  in 
the  streets.  Elizabeth  finding  her  trump  card  go  for  nothing, 
had  the  youth  recalled  to  England,  where  he  soon  died — and 
not  without  exciting  suspicion  of  foul  play. 

Though  the  Countess  received  a  large  annual  income  or  pen- 
sion from  England,  Donough  O'Connor  was  excessively  liberal  to 
her  in  the  marriage  settlements,  making  over  to  her  even  some 
possessions  which  he  had  no  legal  power  to  give,  so  that  it  became 
necessary  after  his  death  to  institute  a  suit  at  law  for  the  recovery 
of  some  of  the  lands  thus  transferred. 

It  was  only  in  1604,  Donough  was  knighted ;  for  in  a  list, 
drawn  up  in  1618,  of  " Knights  made  in  Ireland  since  the  King's 
first  coming  to  the  Crown,"  we  find,  under  the  year  1604,  "  Sir 
Teig  O'Rorke,  and  Sir  Donnogh  O'Connore  Sligo."  He  died 
in  August,  1609,  after  a  life,  so  chequered  by  reverses  and 
successes,  as  to  contain  nobad  index  of  the  eventful  times  in  which 
he  lived.  His  death  occurred  rather  suddenly,  and  quite  unex- 
pectedly, while  a  "  session  or  assize  for  the  county  was  being 
held  at  Sligo ;  "  *  and,  what  is  somewhat  strange,  O'Conor  Roe 

*  Sir  Arthur  Chichester  in  a  letter  to  Salisbury,  writes  :— "Sir  Donogh 


HISTORY   OF  SL1GO.  141 

died  in  Sligo  on  the  same  occasion.  It  is  stated  in  an  inquisition 
that  Tomultagh  MacDermot  was  Sir  Donough's  blood  relation 
and  next  heir,  but  the  latter,  the  day  before  he  died,  made  a  will, 
leaving  all  his  possessions  to  his  brother  Donnell  or  Daniel.  Sir 
Donough  was  buried  with  his  ancestors,  in  the  Abbey  of  Sligo, 
on  the  epistle  side  of  the  sanctuary,  in  the  spot  over  which  now 
stands  the  mural  monument  erected  in  memory  of  him  and  his 
wife,  the  Countess  of  Desmond,  who  survived  him  near  half 
a  century,  and  died  in  1656. 

To  Sir  Donough  then  succeeded  Donnell  or  Daniel  his  brother, 
or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  his  half  brother,  for  they  had  not 
the  same  mother,  though  Cathal  Oge  was  the  father  of  both. 
The  new  chief  of  Sligo  had  passed  his  life  on  the  Continent,  and 
served  in  the  armies  of  France  and  Spain.  For  this  his  people 
esteemed  him  the  more,  and  were  proud  to  have  him  at  their  head. 
For  this,  however,  the  Lord  Deputy  and  others  looked  on  him 
with  suspicion,  but,  as  his  title  to  Sligo  was  clear,  it  would  have 
been  of  no  use  to  dispute  it,  and  he  was  allowed  to  enter  into 
quiet  possession — the  moment  he  arrived  from  abroad.  Little 
more  than  thirty  years  of  age  at  his  accession  to  the  estate,  and 
a  widower,  his  career  was  very  short  and  unmarked  by  any  event 
calling  for  mention,  except  his  marriage  to  Lady  Ellen  Fitz- 
Gerald,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Donough's  wife,  the  Countess  of 
Desmond,  which  having  been  arranged  before  he  came  to  the 
country,  was  celebrated  soon  after  his  arrival.  His  death  took 
place  on  the  20th  June,  1611,  and  he  was  buried,  no  doubt, 
with  his  brother  in  the  abbey,  though  this  is  not  expressly  stated. 

O'Connor  is  dead.  A  letter  from  his  brother,  who  is  his  heir,  has  just  arrived. 
He  is  an  unstaid  man,  and  in  the  late  Queen's  days  served  the  Spaniards." 

Sir  Robert  Jacob,  Judge  of  Assize  in  Connaught,  writes  on  the  same  occasion 
to  Salisbury  : — "O'Connor  Roe  and  O'Connor  Sligo,  two  of  the  greatest  Irish 
Lords  in  Connaught,  died  while  they  were  holding  sessions  in  Sligo.  O'Connor 
Sligo  died  without  issue,  and  his  lands  descended  to  his  brother,  Donnell  O'Con- 
nor, who  is  a  widower  of  the  age  of  4  or  5  and  30  years.  He  is  to  marry  with 
one  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond's  daughters ;  he  speaks  English  well  ;  he  was  bred 
up  in  the  wars  in  France,  the  people  have  a  great  opinion  of  him,  and  he  is  like 
to  prove  an  honest  man,  if  his  grafting  upon  a  crabbed  stock  do  not  alter  his 
proper  nature."— Dublin,  19  Oct.,  1609. 


142  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


The  next  Lord  of  Sligo  was  Charles  O'Connor,  a  son  of  Daniel's 
by  a  former  marriage,  for  Daniel  was  a  widower  when  he  mar- 
ried Lady  Ellen  FitzGerald.  Being  only  ten  years  old  at  his 
father's  death,  Charles  became  a  King's  ward,  and  the  wardship 
was  granted  to  Sir  Faithful  Fortescue,  who  proved  himself  a 
faithful  guardian  of  the  minor's  interests  in  temporal  matters. 
Finding  the  Countess  of  Desmond  in  possession  of  large  scopes 
of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  country,  to  which  she  had  no  legal  right, 
and  which  she  obtained  by  claiming  them  as  part  of  her  jointure, 
he  called  Chichester's  attention  to  the  injustice  by  letter,  and 
instituted  a  successful  suit  at  law  against  the  Countess  for  the 
lands  in  question.  In  the  letter  to  the  Lord  Deputy,  he  says, 
"  The  late  Queen,  in  the  44th  year  of  her  reign,  under  an  English 
patent,  granted  the  lands  in  question  to  Sir  Donogh  O'Connor 
for  life,  and  to  his  issue  in  tail  male — remainder  to  Daniel 
O'Connor,  his  brother,  by  a  second  venter  for  life,  and  to  his 
issue  in  tail  male,  and  divers  remainders  over.  As  for  the  lands 
she  claims  there  were  passed  in  the  recovery  13  castles,  100 
messuages,  10  gardens,  4000  acres  of  moor,  1000  acres  of  pasture, 
1000  acres  of  wood,  and  3000  acres  of  heath  in  Sligo,  Bally  mo- 
hary,  Court,  Bradcullon,  Lyssedoyle,  Bunnina,  Dirretchane,  Car- 
rick,  Ballydrehot,  Buninna,  Moylagh,  and  Downcibre." 

After  complaining  that  the  Countess  and  her  daughter 
had  nearly  all  the  estate,  Fortescue  adds,  "  But  for  your  lord- 
ship's care  and  foresight  to  preserve  the  estate  of  the  boy,  all  the 
lands  had  reverted  back  to  Sir  William  Taaffe,  which  was  pur- 
chased for  him,  and  for  which  your  lordship  paid  £500.  The 
suit  was  tried  in  Sligo  at  Trinity  Term,  1613,  and  resulted  in  an 
order  of  Court  for  taking  the  possessions  in  dispute  out  of  the 
Countess'  hands.  This  improved  Charles  O'Connor's  estate, 
though  much  of  it  was  still  away  from  him ;  but,  whatever  it 
was,  he  did  not  enjoy  it  long,  as  he  died  on  the  21st  July,  1625. 
Like  his  uncle,  Sir  Donough,  and  his  granduncle  Sir  Donnell, 
Charles  was  a  knight ;  but  he  was  besides  a  baronet,  a  dignity 
which  Donough  or  Donnell  could  not  enjoy,  as  it  did  not  exist 
in  their  time,  the  order  of  baronets  having  been  created  by 


HfSTORY   OF   SLIGO.  143 


James  I.  in  1611,  and  having  been  introduced  into  Ireland  only  in 
161 9,  when  Sir  Charles  Blundell  was  created  the  first  Irish  baronet. 

It  was  on  May  the  llth,  1622  (20  Jac.  I),  that  "  Charles 
Connor,  Esq.,  of  Sligo,  County  Sligo,"  was  created  a  baronet 
(Liber  Munerum,  Vol.  I,  Part  I.,  p.  73.) 

Lodge  and  Archdall's  Peerage  of  Ireland*  states  that  Sir 
Charles  died  in  1634,  but  in  this  these  writers  are  in  error,  as  the 
inquisition  quoted  is  decisive  on  the  subject.  And  they  state 
too,  that  Sir  Charles  was  married  to  Lady  Sarah  McDonnell, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Antrim,  in  which  statement  they  are 
also  mistaken ;  for  though  negociations  for  the  marriage  were 
in  progress  in  1625,  the  year  of  his  death,  nothing  came  of  them* 
owing  partly  to  Sir  Charles'  declining  health,  and  partly  to  the 
intervention  of  the  Lord  Deputy  Falkland  who,  on  hearing  of 
the  proceeding,  wrote  thus  to  the  authorities  in  England :  "  The 
young  gentleman's  father  was  a  person  of  extraordinary  conse- 
quence here,  and  himself  hitherto  well  trained  up,  both  in  that 
kingdom  and  this,  in  religion,  the  consideration  whereof  and  the 
doubt  how  this  match  may  change  him,  cause  me  to  write." 
No  doubt  it  was  the  religion  of  Lady  Sarah  that  chiefly  attracted 
Sir  Charles  towards  her,  for  it  is  pretty  certain,  whatever  Falk- 
land and  others  might  have  thought  of  the  matter,  that  he  was  a 
Catholic  in  his  heart. 

Sir  Charles'  heir  was  his  brother  Donogh.  It  was  he  and  not 
Sir  Charles,  as  Lodge  and  Archdall  thought,  that  married  Lady 
Sarah  McDonnell.  Donogh  was  twenty  years  and  six  months  old 
at  the  death  of  his  brother,  and  died  himself  in  1634,  as  the  fol- 
lowing Funeral  entry  in  a  manuscript  Pedigree  Book  of  Sir 
Bernard  Burke  informs  us : — "  Donogh  O'Connor  Sligo  of  Sligo, 
in  the  county  of  Sligo,  Esq.,  departed  this  mortal  life  at  Sligo, 
the  xiiith  day  of  the  month  of  May,  anno  1634.  He  had  to  wife 


*  Vol.  I.,  p.  207.  Article,  MacDonnell,  Earl  of  Antrim.  D'Alton  in  King 
James's  Irish  Army  List,  Vol.  I.,  p.  533,  falls  into  the  same  mistake,  as  does 
Rev.  George  Hill  in  his  MacDonnells  of  Antrim,  p.  250.  The  two  latter  erred, 
no  doubt,  from  relying  implicitly  on  the  Peerage  of  Ireland,  instead  of  going 
themselves  to  the  original  authorities. 


144  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Lady  Sarah,  daughter  of  the  Right  Honble.  Randall  McDonnell, 
Earl  of  Antrim,  by  whom  he  had  no  issue.  Teige  O'Connor 
Sligo,  uncle  and  heir  of  said  Donogh,  does  under  his  hand  testifie 
the  truth  of  this  certificate  being  taken  by  me,  Thomas  Preston, 
Esq.,  Ulster  King  of  Arms,  to  be  recorded  in  my  office  the 
xxvith  of  Aprill,  1635." 

The  Sligo  estate  now  reverted  to  Teige  O'Connor,  who,  like 
Sir  Donogh  and  Daniel,  was  a  son  of  Cathal  Oge,  and  therefore 
uncle  of  Donogh  and  his  heir  in  tail  male.  This  Teige's  son, 
Teige  also  by  name,  who  was  the  next  O'Connor  Sligo,  lived  in 
the  trying  days  of  1641,  and  though  he  cast  in  his  lot  with  the 
Old  Irish  in  the  fatal  conflict  of  the  times,  he  never  ceased  incul- 
cating humanity  and  moderation  on  those  around  him.  Such  con- 
duct should  have  saved  his  life,  and  would  probably  have  saved  it, 
only  that  he  had  the  ill  luck  to  be  the  heir  of  a  great  estate,  which 
his  enemies  coveted,  and  which  they  could  not,  with  any  decency, 
appropriate  till  he  was  put  out  of  the  way.  The  ownership  of  a 
landed  estate  by  a  Catholic  was  the  "  irremissible  sin"  in  the  eyes 
of  the  Cromwellian  victors,  and  Teige  O'Connor  had  to  pay  the 
penalty.  For  this  he  suffered  at  Boyle*  as  we  learn  from  Morison, 
who  thus  writes  in  his  Threnodia  Hiberno-Catholica :  "  Illus- 
trissimus  Dom  Thadseus  O'Connor  Sligo,  ex  ultimorum,  ac  poten- 
tissimorum,  Hibernias  monarchum  prosapia  satus,  vir  miraB 
innocentiae  ac  bonitatis,  post  amnestiam  cum  toto  regno  factam,  in 
oppido  de  Boyle  in  Conacia,  suspendio  necatur,  anno  1652" 
(Thaddaeus  O'Connor  Sligo,  descended  from  the  royal  race  of  the 
last  and  most  powerful  monarchs  of  Ireland ;  a  man  of  great 
goodness  and  innocence;  was  hung  in  the  town  of  Boyle  in 
Connaught,  A.D.  1652,  after  the  general  amnesty  had  been  granted.) 

Teige's  son,  Martin,  who  is  the  first  burgess  named  in  the  list 
of  James  the  Second's  burgesses  of  Sligo,  lost,  by  the  fall  of 
James,,  all  chance  of  recovering  the  great  inheritance  of  his 
family,  and  seeing  the  lowly  condition  to  which  he  was  reduced, 
and  the  exaltation  of  his  enemies,  might  well  say  with  Job  : — 
"  But  now  the  younger  in  time  scorn  me,  whose  fathers  I  would 
not  have  set  with  the  dogs  of  my  flock." 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  145 


Eleanor  Butler,  wife  of  Sir  Donogh,  brought  as  little  luck  to 
the  O'Connors  Sligo  family  as  she  had  brought  to  the  Earls  of 
Desmond,  of  whom  her  unfortunate  husband  was  the  last. 
Though  she  was  an  honourable  match  for  Sir  Donogh,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  his  family  did  not  lose  much  more  than  they 
gained  by  the  marriage.  If  she  brought  them  some  accession  of 
dignity,  belonging  as  she  did  by  blood  and  alliance  to  the  first  of 
the  great  Anglo-Norman  houses,  she  was  also  the  occasion  of  a 
great  diminution  of  their  estate.  Not  long  before  she  joined 
them,  the  head  of  the  family,  according  to  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  ruled  all  the  territory  stretching  from  Magh  Ene  to 
Kesbcorran,  and  from  the  river  Moy  to  Breffney,  while  at  her 
death,  in  1656,  there  was  hardly  a  foot  of  all  this  which  he 
could  call  his  own. 

In  comparison  of  Sir  Donogh,  the  succeeding  heads  of  the 
family  were  poor  men.  With  more  than  one  third  of  the  chief- 
tain's lands  in  the  hands  of  the  Countess  of  Desmond ;  with  great 
scopes  in  the  possession  of  her  daughter,  Lady  Cressy  ;  and,  after 
the  death  of  Donogh  O'Connor,  with  considerable  stretches 
encumbered  for  the  jointure  of  Lady  Sarah  McDonnell,  very 
little  of  the  property  was  available  for  the  O'Connors  ;  and  with 
such  crippled  resources  the  family  were  ill  able  to  play  an 
effective  part  in  the  trying  scenes  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  money  counted  for  more  than  the  sword,  so  that  one  may  be 
warranted  in  holding  the  clever  but  selfish  Countess  to  be  a 
telling  factor  in  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo. 


VOL.  i.  K 


CHAPTER  VI 

SLIGO  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

STIRRING  as  has  been  the  history  of  Ireland  at  all  times,  the 
seventeenth  century  was  the  most  eventful  period  through 
which  the  country  has  passed.  Opening  with  the  battle  of 
Kinsale;  closing,  virtually,  with  the  battle  of  Aughrim — the 
intermediate  occurrences  being  in  keeping  with  these  weighty 
events — the  axe  was  then,  if  ever,  laid  to  the  root,  when  the 
whole  fabric  of  society  was  overhauled  and  rearranged.  And 
while  previous  disturbances  were  always  of  a  local  character, 
those  of  that  time  took  in  the  whole  country,  Sligo,  as  might 
be  expected  from  its  situation,  coming  in  for  more  than  a  full 
share  of  the  trouble. 

A  sense  of  insecurity  and  danger  created  throughout  the 
county  feelings  of  discontent  and  unrest,  and,  in  many 
instances,  of  disloyalty.  Sir  Donough  O'Connor,  the  first  man 
in  the  county,  felt  sore  for  the  wrong  done  him  in  depriving 
him  of  Ballymote,  and  handing  it  over,  with  22J  quarters  of 
the  adjoining  lands,  to  Sir  James  Fullerton.  And  the  feeling 
was  embittered  when  the  same  foreigner  was  granted  the 
governorship  of  the  castle  of  Sligo. 

In  other  parts  of  the  county  too,  the  English  and  Scotch,  on 
one  title  or  another — as  grantees,  as  mortgagees,  as  trustees,  or 
as  purchasers — were  displacing  the  Old  Irish,  so  that  the  con- 
stant transference  of  lands  from  the  natives  to  foreigners, 
became  the  most  marked  feature  of  the  times.  Sir  John  King 
got  from  the  Crown  large  tracts  of  land  in  all  the  baronies  of 
the  county;  Sir  William  Taaffe  received  similar  grants  in 
Corran,  Carbury,  and  Tirerril ;  John  Taaffe,  son  of  Sir  William, 
held  several  quarters  of  land  in  Tireragh  ;  John  Crofton  of 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  147 


Hoscommon  had  large  scopes  of  church  lands  in  Tirerrill  and 
Leyney;  William  Crofton  of  Templehouse  like  scopes  in 
Leyney,  Tirerrill,  and  Carbury  ;  Richard  Lord  Boyle,  the  lands 
of  Court  Abbey,  Ardnaree  Abbey,  and  other  lands  in  Leyney, 
Corran,  and  Tireragh  ;  Sir  Oliver  St.  John,  Christopher 
Delahide,  Thomas  Greene,  John  Baxter,  Roger  Jones,  his  son- 
in-law — John  Ridge  of  Roscommon — and  several  others,  foreign 
either  by  birth  or  blood,  including  the  Blakes,  Frenches,  Lynches, 
and  Nolans  of  Galway,  obtained  the  old,  immemorial  possessions 
of  the  O'Connors,  McDonoughs,  O'Haras,  and  O'Garas. 

The  Irish  gentry  were  more  troubled  on  the  score  of  religion 
even  than  on  the  score  of  property.  Incapacitated  by  their 
faith  from  preferment  of  any  kind  in  the  districts  over  which 
they  had  lately  ruled  as  masters ;  crushed  by  ruinous  fines 
under  Elizabeth's  Act  of  Uniformity  for  non-attendance  at 
Protestant  worship ;  deprived  of  the  ministry  and  consolations 
of  religion  by  the  King's  Proclamation  of  1605,  banishing  "all 
Jesuits,  missionary  priests,  and  other  priests  whatsoever,  that 
derived  authority  from  the  See  of  Rome  ;"  the  only  alternative 
allowed  them  was  disloyalty  to  God  or  disloyalty  to  the  civil 
power.  To  fret  them  still  more,  reports  were  in  constant  cir- 
culation that  the  Puritans  of  England  and  Scotland  were 
coming  over  to  extirpate  Catholics  and  Catholicity,  root  and 
branch,  out  of  the  land. 

Strafford's  administration  aggravated  all  these  evils.  His 
proceedings,  in  finding  the  king's  title  to  the  county  Sligo,  as 
well  as  to  the  other  counties  of  Connaught,  and  thus  annulling 
all  the  existing  titles  of  owners  and  occupiers  throughout  the 
province,  was  commonly  regarded  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
banishing  of  the  Irish,  and  the  planting  of  English  and  Scotch 
on  the  land  in  their  stead.  And  he  was  counted  as  great  an 
enemy  to  the  religion,  as  to  the  property  of  the  Irish;  for  people 
credited  him  with  the  intention  of  forcing,  by  pains  and 
penalties,  Catholics,  and,  indeed,  all  who  lived  in  the  country, 
to  join  one  great  comprehensive  State  Church,  which  he  meant 
to  establish  the  moment  his  hands  were  clear  of  the  business  of 


148  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


defective  titles.  Such  were  some  of  the  disabilities,  the 
troubles,  and  the  fears  of  all  Irish  Catholics  on  the  eve  of  the 
terrible  outbreak  of  1641. 

Though  the  insurrection  began  on  the  23rd  of  October,  and 
had  overrun,  in  about  a  week,  the  counties  of  Donegal,  Tyrone, 
Derry,  Fermanagh,  and  Cavan,  that  is,  all  Ulster,  except  the 
towns  of  Enniskillen,  Derry,  and  Coleraine,  it  was  only  in  the 
beginning  of  December  it  showed  itself  in  Sligo.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  first  care  of  the  insurgents  was  to  seize  the  strong 
places.  For  this  purpose  men  flocked  from  all  parts  of  the 
county,  and  from  portions  of  the  county  Leitrim  into  Sligo,  to 
secure  the  town  and  the  two  castles,  or  so-called  castles,  which 
it  contained.  The  first  batch  of  insurgents,  that  arrived,  came 
from  Lower  Carbury,  which  comprised  the  parishes  of  Drumcliff, 
Ahamlish,and  the  county  Sligo  portion  of  Rossinver,  and  were 
led  by  Teige  Buy  O'Connor,  and  Captains  Bryan,  Charles,  and 
Hugh  O'Connor,  the  three  last  being  brothers  of  O'Connor  Sligo  ; 
this  body  was  followed  by  the  men  of  Upper  Carbury,  those  who 
lived  between  the  Kilsellagh  stream  and  Belladrehid,  under  the 
command  of  Donnell  McBrian  Darrough  O'Connor,  who  quartered 
them  in  the  houses  adjoining  St.  John's  Church ;  the  men  of 
Tirerrill  marched  under  Brian  McDonongh  of  Collooney,  and 
Patrick  Plunket  of  Markrea  ;  while  the  Leitrim  contingent  had 
for  leader  Owen  O'Rorke  of  Dromahair,  chief  of  his  name.* 


*  The  full  list  of  leaders,  according  to  the  deposition  of  William  Walsh— a 
deposition  by  no  means  trustworthy — was  as  follows  : — "  Teige  O'Connor 
Sligo,  reputed  Generall  of  the  Rebels  in  these  parts,  Mr.  Bryan  O'Connor, 
Captain  Charles  O'Connor,  a  fryar,  Captain  Hugh  O'Connor,  all  brothers  to 
O'Connor  Sligo,  Captain  Bryan  McDonogh,  Captain  Luke  Taaffe,  Captain 
Francis  Taaffe,  Captain  Patrick  Plunket,  Captain  Donell  McBryan  Darrough 
O'Connor,  Captain  John  O'Crean,  Captain  Bryan  McSwine,  Captain  Roger 
McO wen McS wine,  Captain Phelim  O'Connor,  Captain  Teige, MacKory  O'Connor, 
Captain  Teige  O'Connor  of  the  Glen,  Captain  Con  O'Connor,  of  the  same, 
Colonel  Owen  O'Royrke,  Captain  McOwen  Oge  O'Royrke,  Captain 
Bryan  Ballagh  O'Royrke,  Captain  Teige  McBryan  Ballagh  O'Royrke, 
Captain  Hugh  McDonogh,  Captain  Robert  McNamee,  Captain  William 
Oge  McPhelim  McGlannagh  (Clancy),  of  the  Dartry,  in  the  county  of 
Leitrim.  Captain  Teige  McPhelim  McGlannagh  of  the  same,  Captain  William 


HISTORY  OF   SLTGO.  149 


Having  quartered  their  men  through  the  town,  the  leaders 
met  in  the  Abbey,  to  deliberate  on  their  future  proceedings,  and, 
especially,  to  appoint  a  commander-in-chief.  It  would  appear, 
from  the  deposition  of  Colonel  Owen  O'Rorke,  that  there  was  no 
great  competition  for  the  dangerous  honour ;  for  being  offered 
to  Teige  O'Connor  Sligo,  it  was  declined  by  him  ;  when,  without 
further  discussion  or  ceremony,  it  was  assumed,  rather  than 
received,  by  Brian  McDonough  of  Collooney,  a  man  not  unfitted 
for  the  post,  being  possessed  of  indomitable  courage,  and  being 
connected,  by  blood  or  marriage,  with  all  the  old  Irish  and 
Anglo  Irish  families  of  the  county. 

The  task  now  before  the  insurgents,  which  was  to  capture  two 
castles  but  indifferently  defended,  was  an  easy  one.  One  of 
these  fortresses  belonged  to  Lady  Jones,  the  relict  of  Sir  Roger 
Jones.  This  structure,  being  attacked,  in  front,  by  the  troops 
of  Captain  Robert  McConmy  of  Tireragh,  and,  in  the  rear,  by 
those  of  Captain  Patrick  Plunket,  of  Markrea,  was  the  first  to 
give  in  ;  and  seeing  it  in  the  possession  of  the  Irish,  Ensign 
Cotton,  who  commanded  the  other  castle,  called  O'Crean's 
Castle,  opened  a  parley  with  the  besiegers.  Disliking,  however, 
the  terms  offered,  he  informed  those  under  him  that  "  if  they 
did  not  like  this  quarter,  he  would  live  and  die  with  them  ;"  but 
it  would  appear  that  neither  he,  nor  those  with  him,  had  any 
real  wish  to  prolong  the  defence,  for  he  immediately  accepted 
the  proffered  conditions,  which  were,  that  the  besieged  "  should 
have  their  lives  and  as  much  of  their  goods  as  they  could  carry 
on  their  backs,  with  a  convoy  to  pass  whither  they  pleased," 
if  they  did  not  elect,  as  they  were  free  to  d,o,  to  remain  in 
Sligo. 

The  two  so-called  castles  were  strongly  built  stone  houses,  for 
it  was  usual  at  the  time  to  call  such  houses,  though  private 
residences,  castles.  One  of  those  structures  was  built  by  the 
Creans  or  O'Creans,  and  the  other  by  Sir  Roger  Jones.  They 

Mclrlannagh  of  the  same,  Mr.  Keclagh  O'Bannaghan,  Mr.  James  French,  and 
Jeffry  French,  his  sonne,  and  Edmond  McBryan  McSwine,  Guardian  of  the 
Dominicans  of  the  Abbey  of  Sligo." 


150  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


stood  at  the  east  end  of  Castle  Street,  and  near  to  one  another. 
The  old  castle,  dismantled  in  1595,  by  O'Donnell,  must  have 
become  a  mere  mass  of  ruins  long  before  this,  as  we  may  infer 
from  the  design  of  Essex  in  1599,  as  recorded  in  the  Four 
Masters,  to  build  a  new  "  impregnable  fortress  in  Sligo " — a 
design  frustrated  by  the  battle  of  the  Curlews,  and  never 
resumed  afterwards. 

In  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  a  considerable 
number  were  convoyed  to  Boyle,  one  batch  by  Captain  Brian 
McDonogh,  and  another  under  the  charge  of  Captain  Patrick 
Plunket ;  and  if  any  of  the  latter  party  were  maltreated  by 
roughs  on  the  road,  as  is  alleged,  there  is  no  evidence,  at  least 
no  evidence  amounting  to  proof,  that  this  was  done  with  the 
connivance  or  consent  of  Plunket.  Bryan  McDonogh.  left  all 
his  party  safe  in  Boyle. 

One  foul  blot,  however,  stains  the  record  of  Sligo  at  this  time 
— the  massacre  which  took  place  in  the  gaol.  That  a  massacre 
of  some  kind  happened  is  sure  ;  that  about  a  score  of  defenceless 
persons — probably  less  than  more— including  at  least  one 
woman,  were  sacrificed,  can  hardly  be  denied  ;  but  that  the 
tragedy  was  planned  and  commanded  by  the  officers,  at  a  formal 
meeting  in  the  Abbey,  as  is  alleged  in  the  deposition  of  James 
Martin,  (while  William  Walsh  deposes  that  this  meeting  took 
place  in  Lady  Jones'  house  or  castle,)  or  that  the  horrors  with 
which  Jane  Steward's  deposition  is  full, had  any  existence  outside 
her  own  inventive  brain  and  wicked  tongue,  passes  all  belief. 

In  any  case  these  two  witnesses  put  themselves  out  of  court ; 
— Jane  Steward  by  admitting  she  was  so  sick,  in  her  own  house, 
all  this  time,  that  she  could  not  stir,  and  that  she  only  had  her 
information  "from  those  that  escaped,  and  from  her  Irish 
servants,  and  others  of  the  town;"  and  James  Martin,  son  of 
Arthur  Martin,  by  declaring  "  that  he  heard  from  his  mother 
there  was  a  meeting  of  officers  in  the  Abbey,  that  a  poor  beggar 
seeing  it  entered,  and  ii'as  listening  to  the  deliberations,  when 
they  resolved  to  put  those  in  gaol  to  death."*  According  even 

*  Deposition  of  James  Martin. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  151 


to  Jane  Steward's  own  deposition,  four  at  least  of  the  victims, 
or  intended  victims,  of  the  massacre,  who  were  in  the  gaol  and 
eye-witnesses  of  what  occurred,  Robert  Gumble,  ex-provost  of 
Sligo,  Edward  Newsham,  Edward  Mercer,  and  Jane  Steward's 
own  son,  Joseph  Steward,  escaped  and  survived  the  scene ;  and 
is  it  not  clear  that  these,  or  some  of  them,  would  have  been 
produced  as  witnesses,  if  they  were  able  to  back  up  her  ghastly 
deposition  ?  But  they  were  kept  out  of  the  way,  and  the 
swearing  was  left  to  this  Jane  Steward,  who  had  £1,200,  the 
value  of  her  alleged  losses,  to  gain  by  her  performance,  if  she 
swore  well  up  to  the  mark ! 

As  it  is  nowhere  stated  why  the  British  were  put  into  the  gaol, 
we  may  conjecture  that  it  was  to  save  them  from  the  violence  of 
the  mob,  to  which  they  were  exposed,  if  they  remained  in  their 
houses.  This  is  what  commonly  occurs  even  at  present  during 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary  movements,  though  it  some- 
times happens,  when  there  is  not  an  adequate,  or  well  organized 
protecting  force,  that  what  is  intended  for  an  ark  of  safety  is 
converted  by  the  malice  of  evil  men  into  a  trap  of  destruction, 
as  might  be  illustrated  by  scenes  of  the  French  Revolution,  or 
even  of  the  Irish  rebellion  of  '98.  Indeed  the  prison  is  always 
one  of  the  first  places  attacked  by  insurgents,  in  order  to  reach 
those  confined,  with  the  purpose  either  of  sacrificing  or  of  saving 
them,  according  as  they  are  obnoxious  or  acceptable  to  the 
assailants.  In  some  such  way  as  this  the  "labourers"  and 
"  butchers1  boys  "  of  the  Depositions,  knowing  the  British  to 
be  in  the  gaol,  found  their  way  into  the  prison,  and  gratified 
their  brutal  instincts  by  an  act  which  was  a  great  crime,  but 
which  was  also  a  great  blunder,  as  calculated  to  bring  odium  and 
disgrace  on  their  cause. 

A  still  more  probable  explanation  of  the  tragedy  is,  that  it  was 
the  sudden  and  unpremeditated  outcome  of  a  drunken  orgie.  It  is 
admitted  that  the  persons  who  were  most  concerned  in  the  crime, 
either  as  instigators  or  perpetrators,  including  the  O'Connor 
Sligo's  brothers,  passed  the  early  hours  of  the  night  in  question 
in  drinking  heavily ;  for  Jane  Steward  herself  deposed  that  she 


152  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


went  "  into  the  room  of  Helen  Trimble,"  where  they  were 
assembled,  and  stayed  there,  while  they  were  drinking  five 
quarts  of  aqua  vitce"  With  such  evidence  before  us  there  is 
no  need  to  seek  further  for  the  cause  or  motive  of  the  gaol 
massacre — the  aqua  vitce  being  in  this,  as  in  most  Irish  cases, 
at  the  bottom  of  the  crime. 

Before  they  were  put  into  the  gaol,  the  victims  of  the 
massacre  had  been  for  some  time  in  the  custody  of  Captains 
Hugh  and  Charles  O'Connor,  who,  as  we  learn  from  the  deposi- 
tions of  Brian  Ballagh  O'Rorke  and  Colonel  Owen  O'Rorke, 
"  had  committed  the  English  that  were  then  in  the  town  upon 
suspition  of  surprysing  the  castles,"  and  to  prevent  them  from 
co-operating  with  the  English  of  Roscommon,  who  were  said 
to  be  in  full  march  upon  Sligo. 

While  thus  acquitting  the  chief  leaders — O'Connor  Sligo,  the 
Taaffes,  Brian  McDonough,  Owen  O'Rorke,  and  Patrick  Plunket 
— of  all  complicity  with  the  authors  of  the  massacre,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  O'Connor's  two  brothers,  Charles  (who  seems 
to  have  been  a  friar)  and  Hugh,  may  fairly  be  suspected  of 
some  participation  in  the  crime,  either  in  the  way  of  direct 
co-operation,  or  of  connivance,  or  of  cowardly  toleration  of  what 
they  were  bound  to  prevent,  if  possible.  The  offence,  though 
never  proved,  was  charged  upon  them  in  their  own  day ;  and 
that  the  charge  was  not  altogether  a  trumped  up  one,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  deposed  to  by  Sir  Francis  Taaffe,  that 
himself  and  his  brother,  with  a  large  military  force,  arrested  the 
O'Connors,  and  lodged  them  in  the  castle  of  Ballinafad,  there  to 
await  trial  for  their  alleged  conduct — a  circumstance,  if  tending 
to  justify  suspicions  against  the  O'Connors,  serving  to  clear  the 
heads  of  the  insurrection  at  Sligo  from  hand  or  part  in  the  detest- 
able doings  of  the  gaol.  The  captives  were  released  or  escaped 
from  confinement  before  trial;  but  in  the  year  1652  Hugh 
O'Connor — Charles  may  have  been  then  dead  or  out  of  the 
country — came  to  Lord  Clanrickard,  near  Ballyshannon,  and 
asked  his  lordship  to  question  him  regarding  the  massacre — a 
proceeding  which  would  indicate  innocence,  though  it  failed  to 


HISTORY  OF  SLTGO.  153 


convince  Clanrickard,  who  threatened  to  hang  him  on  getting 
to  Ballyshannon.  The  sudden  approach  of  the  enemy  against 
Clanrickard's  troops,  put  an  end  to  the  parley  with  Hugh 
O'Connor,  and  stopped  all  ulterior  proceedings.* 

If  Charles  and  Hugh  O'Connor  were  guilty,  which  is,  at 
worst,  doubtful,  they  acted  very  differently  from  Owen  O'Rorke, 
Teige  O'Connor  Sligo,  and  other  leaders,  who  not  only  protected 
the  persons  of  the  British,  but  took  charge  of  their  money  and 
goods,  which  they  kept  safe  for  the  owners,  and  delivered  back 
when  all  danger  was  passed.  Owen  O'Rorke  being  examined 
on  the  17th  May,  1653,  testified  that  "  being  in  Lady  Jones' 
house,  and  asked  for  protection,  he  protected  several,  and 
among  the  rest  William  Browne,  the  minister,  taking  charge 
of  bundles  for  them,  and  also  of  money,  which  he  delivered  up 
afterwards."  Teige  O'Connor  Sligo,  too,  protected  John 
Braxton,  Provost  of  Sligo,t  and  all  others  that  he  could;  and, 
seeing  the  disorders  of  the  place,  complained  bitterly  that  he 
was  unable  to  stop  outrages.! 

The  gaol  massacre  supplied  the  notorious  Sir  Frederick 
Hamilton  with  a  pretext  for  one  of  those  raids  in  which  that 
brutal  man  was  in  the  habit  of  ravaging,  like  a  wild  beast, 
whatever  places  he  fell  upon.  You  would  search  in  vain  the 
annals  of  the  seventeenth  century,  prolific  as  it  was  in  cruel 
men,  for  a  more  ruthless  monster  than  this  Sir  Frederick.  We 
are  shocked  while  thinking  on  the  savageries  of  certain  human 
tigers  of  the  East,  like  Genghis  Khan  or  Tamerlane ;  but  give 
Hamilton  their  opportunities,  and  he  would  equal  or  eclipse 
their  performances.  Only  let  him  have  "line  and  scope" 
enough,  and  he  would  burn  cities  more  populous  than  Delhi  or 
Bagdad,  would  raise  an  obelisk  of  human  heads  to  overtop  that 
of  Tamerlane  with  its  ninety  thousand. 

Should  the  reader  feel  inclined  to  turn  away  from  this  juxta- 

*  Deposition  of  Sir  Francis  Taaffe,   before  Sir  Charles  Coote  and  Walter 
Carwardine,  at  Galway,  23rd  May,  1653. 
f  Deposition  of  John  Braxton,  Provost  of  Sligo. 
£  Deposition  of  Peter  O'Crean. 


154  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


position  of  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton  and  Tamerlane  as  an  extra- 
vagance, let  him  read  and  study  a  tract  or  pamphlet,  written  or 
inspired  by  Sir  Frederick,  and  he  will  probably  admit,  that  the 
author  of  the  sayings  and  doings  there  recorded,  possessed  a 
natural  inborn  cruelty,  which  if  it  had  free  play,  was  equal  to 
the  perpetration  of  any  and  every  enormity.  The  man  who 
gloats  over  human  suffering ;  who  hunts  men  and  women,  young 
and  old,  with  horse  and  foot,  and  kills  them  "like  vermin ;"  who 
counts  indiscriminate  massacre  "good  sport;"  and  whose  great 
principle  of  action  is  to  "  destroy  with  fire  and  sword,  all  that 
can  be  come  at;"  that  man  is  already  a  Tamerlane  in  heart,  and 
will  be  a  Tamerlane  in  act,  whenever  he  can.  And  such  a  one, 
even  on  his  own  showing,  was  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton.* 


*  The  pamphlet  is  entitled,  "  A  true  Relation  of  the  manner  of  our  Collonel 
Sir  Frederick  Hamilton's  returne  from  Londonderry,  in  Ireland,  being  sixty 
miles  from  his  Castle  and  Garrison,  where  he  was  at  the  beginning  and  break- 
ing out  of  this  Rebellion,  with  the  particular  services  performed  by  the  Horse 
and  Foote  companies  which  he  commandes,  garrisoned  at  Manorhamilton,  in  the 
county  of  Leitrim,  in  the  province  of  Connaught." — Thorpe  Collection  in 
Dublin  Library. 

A  few  items,  copied  from  this  production,  will  give  some  idea  of  its 
contents : — 

"  A  party  sent  towards  Sligo,  where  we  met  with  a  number  of  rogues  "  (his 
usual  name  for  the  Irish)  "  hurt  divers,  killed  3,  brought  home  their  heads  to 
our  Collonel,  with  a  lusty  prisoner  who  was  hanged  next  day," 

"Killed  about  30  in  3  cabbins,  and  hanged  our  guide,  who  died  a  most 
obdurate  villain." 

"  Killed  and  stript  many  of  their  best  men." 

"  Marched  towards  the  Rosse,  where  we  killed  60  of  their  ablest  men  with 
2  of  their  famous  priests." 

"Lying  in  ambush  till  noon  within  two  miles  of  Sligo,  and  those  we 
expected  not  appearing,  as  our  orders  that  day  were  to  burn  and  prey  what 
we  could,  we  burned  several  villages  as  Donoly  (Doonally),  Formorley  (For- 
moyle),  Collrey  (Calry)  and  Lisscluff,  with  many  other  straggling  houses.  .  .  . 
when  county  gathered  we  killed  above  40  of  their  best  men,  stript  them  all, 
divers  of  their  best  gentry  as  the  O'Connors,  and  the  O'Harts  being  thus 
killed." 

"  Sent  a  party  of  horse  and  foot  upon  them,  where  we  had  good  sport  in 
killing  near  60  of  them  with  all  their  three  Captains,  and  Captain  Teige 
O'Connor's  wife.  .  .  .  and  burned  the  town  of  Broadcullin,  with  divers  small 
villages." 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  155 

The  irruption  of  Hamilton  into  Sligo  took  place  on  the  night 
of  the  1st  July,  1642.  Learning  from  his  spies  that  the  garrison, 

"  Took  prisoner  Charles  Maguire  after  breaking  his  leg;  to  cure  him  had 
him  carried  on  a  barrow  to  the  gallows,  where  he  rayled  at  us  for  not  getting 
a  souldier's  death  after  serving  in  France  and  Spain." 

"  We  killed  over  three  score  of  their  best  men,  with  divers  other  gentlemen 
whom  our  boys  stript  ...  to  God's  holy  name  be  the  praise  and  honour." 

"  Burned  and  killed  in  the  houses  upwards  of  three  score  persons." 

"  Chased  the  people  like  dogs  with  horse  and  foote  from  hill  to  hill,  killing 
a  number  "  .  .  .  "  and  our  souldiers  boyes  stripped  near  30  of  their  best  men 
of  the  counties  Sligo  and  Leitrim,  including  Mulmury  McTernan,  ex-sheriff, 
Bryan  O'Rorke,  and  John  O'Crean,  all  being  prime  gentlemen  of  the  two 
counties,  cutting  off  on  that  day  about  60  of  them." 

The  following  is  what  the  pamphlet  says  of  the  raid  on  Sligo: — "Our 
Collonel  after  taking  Parke  prisoner  and  putting  on  an  officer  of  his  own, 
marches  straight  to  Sligoe  ....  Coming  near  the  towne  he  commanded  a 
halt,  and  the  party  to  be  drawn  up  in  a  body,  using  some  comfortable  encourag- 
ing speeches,  asking  if  our  stomachs  did  serve  as  his  did  to  attempt  the  burn- 
ing of  the  towne  now  so  neere  it  which  maintained  so  many  rebellious  enemies, 
who  had  joyned  in  the  burning  our  poor  garrison,  and  so  many  times  encamped 
about  us  and  sought  our  destruction.  This  motion  was  no  sooner  made  by  our 
Collonel  than  cheerfully  embraced  by  us  all,  so  recommending  us  to  his  divine 
mercy,  who  had  many  times  delivered  and  assisted  us,  we  marched  towards  the 
dawning  of  the  day.  Our  Collonel  coming  to  the  bridge  gives  orders  to  the 
foote  cheerfully  to  follow  their  sergeant  with  what  silence  and  speede  they 
were  able,  and  once  entring  the  towne  no  man  presume  on  pain  of  death  to 
enter  any  house  for  plunder,  but  with  fire  and  sword  to  destroy  all  we  could 
come  at,  calling  all  the  streete  if  any  British  prisoners  were  among  them, 
they  should  draw  to  us,  as  divers  did.  Our  Collonel  with  his  horse  falling  on 
many  good  houses  full  of  people  upon  this  side  of  the  bridge,  where  he  burned 
and  destroyed  all,  appointing  his  rendezvous  with  the  foote  at  the  south-west 
end  of  the  Towne,  when  he  crossed  a  fooard  which  brought  him  close  to  the 
friary,  when  the  focte  met  and  fired  their  brave  mass  and  fryery,  where,  it  ia 
said,  we  burnt  many  good  things  which  people  had  given  for  safety  to  the 
friars  and  all  their  superstitious  trumperies  belonging  to  the  mass.  It  was 
thought  some  of  the  friars  themselves  were  burnt ;  two  of  them  running  out 
were  killed  in  their  habits.  As  we  finished  this  work  and  giving  God  the 
praise  for  the  success  .  .  .  our  Collonel  held  it  fit  to  haste  homewards  .  .  . 
notwithstanding  our  wearisome  march  and  hot  service  that  night  in  burning 
the  Toune  of  Sligo  where  it  is  confest  by  themselves  was  destroyed  that  night 
neere  300  soules  by  fire,  sword,  and  drowning,  to  GOD'S  EVERLASTING  GREAT 

HONOUR  AND  GLORY  AND  OUR  COMFORT." 

It  is  hard  to  conceive  that  any  human  being  should  be  capable  of  these 
unspeakable  brutalities  and  blasphemies. 

It  is  said  that  this  monster  has  even  to-day  his  admirers,  but  no  man  with  a 
particle  of  either  faith  or  feeling  would  be  found  among  them.  Reverend  John 


156  HISTORY   OF  SLTGO. 


and  all  the  armed  men  of  the  town,  would  be  engaged  in  a 
distant  expedition  that  night,  he  made  arrangements  to  fall  on 
the  place  in  their  absence.  Setting  out  from  Manorhamilton 
soon  after  dark,  and  stopping  for  a  little  at  Newtown,  where  he 
took  Mr.  Parke  prisoner,  and  put  a  creature  of  his  own  in  com- 
mand, he  resumed  his  journey,  and  arrived  at  Sligo  between  one 
and  two  o'clock.  Having  reached  the  spot  where  the  Ulster 
Bank  now  stands,  and  spoken  a  few  burning  words  to  his  fol- 
lowers, calling  on  them  to  have  "  stomachs"  like  his  own  for 
the  work  before  them,  he  divided  his  force  into  two  parties,  a 
party  of  horse  and  a  party  of  foot,  and,  directing  the  horse  to 
remain  with  himself,  he  ordered  the  foot  to  cross  the  bridge,  and 
proceeding  as  silently  and  swiftly  as  they  were  able,  "  to  destroy 
with  fire  and  sword  all  they  could  come  at." 

The  work  of  destruction  began  at  once,  and,  in  a  very  short 
time,  a  circle  of  raging  flames  surrounded  the  town,  and  lines  of 
flames  ran  along  the  various  streets,  the  houses,  which  were  for 
the  most  part  framed  with  timber  and  covered  with  thatch, 
igniting,  in  that  dry  and  warm  season  of  the  year,  like  tinder. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  river,  comprising  the  district  of  the 
present  Holborn  Street,  Stephen  Street,  and  the  Mall,  where 
there  were  a  good  many  houses  "full  of  people,"  all  were 
"  burned  and  destroyed  "  by  the  horse  under  the  immediate 
orders  of  Hamilton  himself;  while  in  the  region  stretching  from 
the  west  side  of  the  bridge  along  the  present  Knox's  St.,  John  St., 
Batcliffe  St.,  Market  St.,  Castle  St.,  and  through  the  other 
inhabited  spaces  to  the  south  of  the  river,  the  houses  were  all 
given  to  the  flames  by  the  foot  soldiers.  By  the  time  the  foot 
had  accomplished  their  part  of  the  havoc,  they  were  joined  by 
the  horse,  who  had,  with  their  commander,  already  crossed  the 
river  at  Buckley's  ford ;  and  both  parties  now  uniting,  fell  upon 
the  Abbey,  set  fire  to  everything  they  could,  within  and  without 
the  church  and  conventual  buildings,  and  burned  altars,  altar 

Wesley,  in  his  Journal  under  date,  5th  May,  1769,  writes  :  "  Rode  to  Manor- 
hamilton  ;  so-called  from  a  poor  wretch,  who  settled  here  in  the  last  century,  and 
was  famous  for  nothing  else  but  hanging  up  all  the  Irish  who  fell  into  his  hands.'* 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  157 


ornaments,  vestments,  and  various  articles  of  value  committed  by 
the  towns  people  for  safe  keeping  to  the  friars.  Some  of  the 
religious  must  have  perished  in  the  flames,  and  two  of  them, 
who  ran  out  into  the  street  in  their  habit,  to  see  what  was  the 
matter,  were  killed  the  moment  they  appeared  ;  this  sacrilege 
serving  as  a  not  inappropriate  finish  to  the  horrors  of  the  most 
memorable  night  through  which  Sligo  has  ever  passed. 

If  a  single  house  on  fire,  filled  suddenly  with  smoke  and 
flames,  so  as  to  render  egress  extremely  difficult  and  hazardous, 
and  to  drive  the  inmates  frantically  about  in  search  of  some  door 
or  window  through  which  to  escape,  while  they  rend  the  air  with 
their  shrieks  and  cries  for  help,  is  a  spectacle  which,  when  once 
witnessed,  haunts  the  mind  ever  after,  what  must  one  think  of 
a  gigantic  conflagration,  which  enwraps  in  its  burning  embrace 
a  whole  town,  when  all  the  avenues  of  escape  are  carefully  barred 
and  stopped,  and  when  fugitives  from  the  flames  are  driven  back 
into  them,  and  wretches,  jumping  for  safety  from  windows  into 
the  street,  are  received  on  pikes  and  sword  points. 

The  unnatural  orgie  being  now  ended  ;  the  whole  town  being 
one  vast  charnel  house;  the  majority,  three  hundred  probably, 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  went  to  bed  a  few  hours  before  in  health 
and  security,  being  now  corpses — many  burned  to  death  in  their 
houses,  some  despatched  with  the  cold  steel  in  the  streets,  as 
they  tried  to  avoid  the  raging  fire,  and  others,  while  seeking 
to  hide  themselves  in  back  yards  and  gardens,  driven  into  the 
river  and  there  knocked  on  the  head — the  actors  in  this  terrible 
tragedy,  after  congratulating  one  another  on  having  thus  given 
"  everlasting  great  honour  and  glory  to  God,"  as  well  as 
"  comfort "  to  themselves,  retraced  their  steps  to  Manor- 
hamilton,  there  to  prepare  for  new  enterprises  in  incendiarism 
and  murder. 

Let  nobody  try  to  excuse  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton's  excesses 
on  the  score  of  strong  religious  feeling,  a  plea  sometimes  put 
forward  to  extenuate  the  conduct  of  other  fiery  spirits  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Religious  feeling  is  respectable  and,  to 
a  great  extent,  extenuating,  even  when  it  is  abused,  or  per- 


158  '  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


verted ;  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Sir  Frederick  was 
ever  much  moved  either  by  religious  feeling,  or  religious  con- 
viction. As  far  as  evidence  of  any  kind  goes,  religion  as  well 
as  politics  consisted  for  him  in  self-aggrandisement ;  and  who- 
ever thwarted  him  in  this,  he  he  Catholic  or  Protestant,  Celt  or 
Saxon,  became  his  enemy.  It  was  thus  with  "  all  the  Protes- 
tant gentlemen  and  officers  in  the  North,"*  who  were  disgusted 
by  the  mean  and  low  arts  with  which  he  endeavoured  to  raise 
himself  by  depreciating  men  of  the  greatest  merit  and  worth. 

And  he  acted  on  the  same  principle  at  Manorhamilton 
towards  those  Protestants  whose  lands  he  coveted,  or  who  stood 
otherwise  in  the  way  of  his  greed  or  ambition  ;  representing  one 
neighbour,  Sir  W.  Cole,  as  disaffected  to  the  English  Parliament ; 
charging  another,  Mr.  Parke,  of  Newtown,  with  being  in 
collusion  with  the  O'Rorkes ;  and  giving  out  that  the  Very  Rev. 
Dean  Berkley,  who  disobliged  him  in  some  way  "  carried  him- 
self more  like  a  devil  than  a  dean." 

Except  courage,  which  he  certainly  had  in  no  ordinary  degree, 
he  possessed  no  other  high  or  estimable  quality.  Touch  him 
where  you  will,  and  you  find  him  all  over  an  unmitigated  brute ; 
as  impervious  to  sentiments  of  humanity  or  courtesy  as  an 
African  savage.  When  he  receives  a  civil  letter  from  Teige 
O'Connor  Sligo,  full  of  civilities,  and  reminding  him  of  the 
friendship  that  formerly  existed  between  their  families,  he 
sends  back  a  grossly  insulting  answer,  concluding,  "  Yours  with 
scorn ;"  and  when  he  communicates  himself  with  the  Irish  army, 
he  addresses  his  letter,  "To  the  most  unworthy,  cowardly 
Colonels,  Captains,  and  such  like  ragged  Regiment  now  gazing 
for  our  Colonel's  Easter  provisions  neere  Dromahair  and 


*  Carte's  Ormonde,  Vol.  I.,  p.  533.  This  able  writer  says,  "Sir  Frederick 
was  now  grown  universally  odious  to  all  the  Protestant  gentlemen  and  officers 
in  the  North.  His  violence,  rapines,  cruelties,  and  insupportable  insolencies, 
which  few  of  them  had  escaped,  was  the  first  occasion  of  that  aversion  to 
him ;  but  it  was  much  increased  by  the  use  he  made  of  his  credit  with  the 
Parliament  to  lessen  their  services  in  order  to  exalt  his  own,  and  to  supplant 
them  in  their  commands." 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  159 


Crewly."— Compliments  and  regards  are  sent  by  him  in  this 
polite  fashion,  "  Commend  me  to  that  lowsie  lord's  sonne,  Luke 
Taaffe,  and  his  base  brother-in-law,  Bryan  MacDonnaghy." 
Unprincipled  then,  malignant,  self-seeking,  false  hearted,  cruel, 
brutal,  scurrilous — a  liar,  a  whisperer,  a  calumniator — with  the 
conscience  of  a  Tamerlane,  and  the  manners  of  a  Hottentot ; 
such  are  some  leading  features  in  the  character  of  Sir  Frederick 
Hamilton,  the  arch  enemy  of  Sligo  in  his  day. 

For  three  years  from  the  date  of  the  burning,  Sligo  was  left 
free  to  rise  as  best  it  could,  from  the  ashes  to  which  Hamilton 
had  reduced  it.  Meantime,  Teige  O'Connor  Sligo,  held  the 
castle,  and  governed  the  town,  without  having  any  troops  to 
defend  it,  except  a  local  regiment,  of  which  he  was  colonel  by 
commission  from  the  Confederation  of  Kilkenny.  Ormonde, 
struck  with  the  importance  of  the  place,  and  its  weak  defence, 
had  offered  the  Confederation  to  send  a  military  force  to  it  if 
they  consented  to  contribute  towards  their  maintenance,  and  to 
recognise  him  as  commander-in-chief ;  but  they  refused  to  accept 
these  terms  ;  and,  being  in  no  condition  themselves  to  furnish 
a  fitting  garrison,  the  town  had  to  depend  for  safety  on  the 
absence  or  forbearance  of  an  enemy.  "  Quidquid  delirant  reges 
plectuntur  Achivi ;"  and  Sligo  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  the 
dissensions  between  the  Confederates  and  Ormonde. 

Well  aware  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  town,  Sir  Charles 
Coote,  who  had  been  just  appointed  President  of  Connaught 
by  the  Parliament  of  England,  resolved  to  signalize  his  appoint- 
ment by  the  capture  of  the  place.  For  this  purpose  he  organized 
an  army  of  4,000  foot  and  500  horse,*  others  say  8,000  foot  and 
500  horse,f  composed  of  English  and  Scotch  Protestants,  and 
commanded  by  Sir  Robert  Stewart,  an  officer  of  ability,  who  had 
shown  himself  able  to  hold  his  own  even  when  opposed  to  Owen 
Roe  O'Neill.  He  was  ancestor  to  the  much  lamented  Sir  R. 
Stewart,  who  lost  his  life  in  the  Soudan.  This  force  rendez- 
voused at  Augher,  in  Tyrone,  and  marching  from  that  town,  in 

*  Carte's  Ormonde,  Vol.  I,  p.  545.    t  Spicilegium  Ossoriense,  Vol.  I.,  p.  293. 


160  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


the  middle  of  summer,  1645 — the  artillery  having  been  sent  on 
by  sea — they  reached  Sligo  in  a  few  days,  and  opened  fire 
without  delay. 

An  open  town,  without  walls  or  forts,  and  lying  in  the  bottom 
of  a  deep  valley,  could  not  hold  out  long  against  so  formidable 
a  force,  though  O'Connor  Sligo,  who  commanded,*  did  not  yield 
till  the  enemy  had  lost  500  men,  as  well  as  a  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  a  Sergeant  Major,  a  Captain,  and  other  officers,  and 
failing  to  take  Crean's  castle  to  which  the  Irish  had  retired,  had 
promised  fair  and  honourable  quarter.  The  -terms  thus  offered 
were  accepted,  but  the  faith  given  was  disgracefully  broken,  for 
the  moment  the  Irish  issued  from  the  castle,  all — including  200 
men  of  the  garrison,  and  a  vast  number  of  women  and 
children, — were  disarmed,  stripped,  and  massacred,  two  men 
and  two  women  being  the  only  persons  that  escaped  slaughter. 

The  fall  of  Sligo  was  known  in  a  few  days  all  over  the  king- 
dom. A  despatch  of  Garret  Dillon,  one  of  the  officers  engaged, 
to  Sir  Ulick  Bourke,  being  forwarded  by  him  to  Lord  Dillon, 
Ormonde's  President  of  Connaught,  was  sent  on,  in  hot  haste, 
to  Ormonde  himself,  who,  while  admitting  the  gravity  of  the 
crisis,  threw  all  the  blame  of  it  on  the  refusal  of  the  Con- 
federation to  accept  the  conditions  he  had  offered.  Carte  seems 
to  regard  the  defence  of  Sligo  on  this  occasion,  as  merely  formal, 
but  it  is  plain  from  the  letter  of  Garret  Dillon  and  from  another 
of  Mon signer  Scarampif  that  it  was  a  very  grave  affair.  The 


*  Carte's  Ormonde,  Vol.  L,  p.  535. 

t  "  The  forces  for  Sligo  were  composed  of  detachments  out  of  the  old  Scotch 
and  English  regiments ;  and  having,  with  their  artillery,  which  was  sent  by 
sea,  battered  down  one  or  two  houses  in  the  place,  O'Connor  surrendered  the 
castle." 

Garret  Dillon's  letter  has  not  been  published,  but  runs  thus :  "  Lough 
(Glynn),  July,  1645. 

««  Sir,— I  must  now  be  the  author  of  a  woful  tragedy,  for  yesterday  morning 
after  the  battering  of  two  houses  in  Sligo  the  enemy  made  a  hott  and  furious 
assault  upon  the  rest  of  the  town,  where  they  have  lost  500  men — a  Lieutenant 
Collonal,  one  Sergeant-Major,  a  Captain  with  other  officers ;  nothwithstand- 
ing  all  their  loss,  and  not  regarding  their  men's  lives,  they  attempted  Crean's 
house,  where  our  men  betook  themselves,  who  behaved  themselves  so  gallant 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  161 


town  being  taken,  Sir  R.  Stewart  was  constituted  its  governor, 
but  the  state  of  things  in  the  North  requiring  his  presence  there, 
he  left  his  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  Sligo  with  a  garrison  of  500 
men. 

as  they  bett  them  from  it ;  upon  which  the  enemy  sounded  a  parley ;  and 
promised  a  fair  and  honorable  quarter ;  whereupon  our  men  came  away,  and 
after  coming  into  the  streete  were  disarmed,  stript,  and  foully  murthered  ;  soe 
as  never  a  man  escaped  but  2  men  and  2  women  ;  Major  Rouck  (Rorke  ?) 
is  come  hither  this  night,  who  lost  three  score  and  six  of  his  own  company, 
with  his  officers  in  the  service :  Major  Generall  with  greefe  hereof  keeps  his 
bed ;  all  the  Scotch  marched  from  Bellahy  this  morninge  to  Sligo  with  4  or 
5000  cowes.  I  make  no  question  but  now  the  province  will  be  their  owne— 
drumaheir  (Dromahaire)  morere  (?)  Coulloony,  and  the  rest  of  the  garisons  in 
that  county  are  forsaken,  and  burned  ;  Ballimote  and  titemple  (Templehouse) 
excepted,  all  the  castles  in  Tireragh  payes  contribution  allready  to  the  enemy ; 
my  father  (Sir  Lucas  Dillon)  is  expected  at  Dunmore  this  night.  I  pray,  Sir, 
look  well  to  yourself,  for  I  am  sure  you  will  be  very  much  aimed  at ;  and  be 
sure  to  store  yourself  with  provisions ;  thus  with  my  humble  service  to  my 
aunte,  I  remain 

"  Yourowne  servant, 

"  GER.  DILLON. 
"To  Sir  Ullick  Bourke,  Knight  and  Baronet  these. 

—  (Carte  Papers,  Vol.  xv.,  p.  146.) 

"  I  pray  despatch  this  to  my  Lord  President  and  bid  him  be  careful  of  himself 
there." 

Monsignor  Scarampi's  letter  (from  the  Rinuccini  Papers,  Florence)  is  dated 
14th  July,  1645,  and  contains  the  following  reference  to  Sligo:—"  In  Conacia 
incendia  rerum  omnium,  praedae  animantium,  caedes  puerorum  et  mulierum  ab 
8,000  peditibus,  et  500  equitibus  Scotis  et  Anglis.  Obsederunt  et  ceperunt, 
amissis  plusquam  quingentis  ex  his,  Sligoam,  opportunissimam  nostro  malo  et 
eorum  securiati  munitionem,  in  qua  posteaquam  se  pactis  dediderant,  occi- 
derunt  barbare  presidium  nostrum  circa  ducentorum  militum  necnon  omnes 
pueros  et  mulieres.  Remedium  aut  nullum  aut  tardum,  deficientibus  mediis 
utinam  non  animis." 

Spicilegium  Ossoriense— By  Right  Rev.  Patrick  Francis  Moran — First  Series, 
p.  293. 


VOL.  I. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CONFEDERATE  EFFORTS  TO  RECOVER  SLIGO. 

THE  Confederates,  when  it  was  too  late,  realized  the  value  of 
Sligo  as  the  key  of  Connaught,  and  did  their  best  to  retrieve  a 
loss  which  they  should  have  exerted  themselves  more  to  prevent. 
Ordering  the  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  Malachy  Queely,  whom  they 
had  just  made  their  President  of  Connaught,*  to  recover  Sligo, 
that  martial  prelate,  who  judged  it  right,  in  the  terrible  times 
in  which  he  lived,  to  wield  the  sword  as  well  as  the  crosier,  led 
about  2,000  men  against  the  place,  and  was,  in  the  beginning 
of  the  attack,  so  successful  as  to  make  himself  master  of  St. 
John's  Church,  at  one  end  of  the  town,  and  of  the  Abbey  at  the 
other.  This  success,  however,  was  short  lived ;  for  Sir  C.  Coote, 
who,  no  doubt,  was  kept  well  informed  of  the  Archbishop's 
movements,  arriving  from  the  North,  in  the  nick  of  time,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  English  and  Scotch  troops,  the  Confederates 
retired  immediately  from  their  positions,  and,  being  overtaken 
by  the  enemy's  horse,  broke  ranks,  and  took  to  flight,  when  they 
were  cut  down  by  the  Northerners,  who  pursued  them,  sword  in 
hand,  for  several  miles. 

The  victory  was  an  important  one  ;  for  Coote  took  "  several 
standards  and  colours,"  "two  waggons  with  rich  spoile  and 
money,'*  "  150  horses  with  pistols,"  all  "the  luggage,  tents,  and 
ammunition,"  "  four  and  twenty  drums,"  and  "  28  officers  of 
note."  f  But  what  crowned  the  event,  both  as  a  disaster  for 

*  There  were  now  three  different  Presidents  of  Connaught— Dr.  Queely,  the 
President  of  the  Confederation ;  Sir  C.  Coote,  the  President  of  the  English 
Parliament ;  and  Lord  Dillon,  Ormonde's  President. 

fThe  Covenanters' account  of  the  conflict  is  as  follows:— "A  true  relation 
of  the  late  success  at  Sligo  against  the  Irish  rebels,  performed  by  Sir  Charles 
Coote,  Sir  William  Cole,  and  Sir  Francis  Hamilton,  with  the  particulars  here- 
after expressed. 

"On  Sunday  the  17th  October,  1645,  the  Irish  rebels  having  surrounded  the 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  163 


the  Irish,  and  a  triumph  for  the  Covenanters,  was  the  death  of 
the  Archbishop.  While  others  saved  themselves  by  flight  he 
remained  on  the  ground,  either  because  he  disdained  to  fly,  or 
because  "  being  obese  and  of  great  stature  "  *  he  was  ill  able  to 
do  so.  Before  he  fell,  several  priests,  who  stood  by  him  to  the 
last,  were  slain  around  him,  after  which  he  was,  first,  shot  with, 
a  pistol  ball  in  the  reins,  and  next,  mangled  and  despatched 
with  swords.  The  author  of  An  Aphorismical  Discovery  states 


towne  with  1,000  foot  and  300  horse,  the  garrison  seeing  little  hope  of  the 
advance  of  the  Ulster  forces  (who  were  then  neere  them  at  Bundoran),  though 
unknowne  to  them,  conceived  it  absolutely  necessary  to  hazard  the  fighting  with 
the  rebels  with  their  own  strength  and  Sir  William  Cole's  troops,  rather  than  to 
starve  themselves  and  lose  their  out  garrisons  which  were  blocked  up,  the 
enemy  lying  between  them  ;  Captain  Richard  Coot  and  Captain  Richard  Cole 
commanded  our  horse,  being  200,  who  charged  the  rebels  horse  very  resolutely, 
and  fell  to  the  sword  pell  mell,  and  beat  them  amongst  the  divisions  of  their 
own  foot,  and  routed  them.  And  Lieut.  Col.  Sanderson  sallying  out  of  the 
town  with  his  foot,  and  Sir  Francis  Hamilton  coming  in  the  nick  of  time  with 
his  troops,  they  had  all  execution  upon  the  rebels  for  miles.  In  the  pursuit 
their  commander  and  President  of  that  province  was  slaine  (the  Titular  Arch- 
bishop of  Tuam).  Our  men  took  105  of  their  horses  with  pistols,  all  their 
baggage,  tents  and  ammunition,  there  were  two  waggons  with  rich  spoile  and 
money  in  them,  they  took  several  of  their  standards  and  colours,  four  and 
twenty  drums,  and  officers  of  note  in  number  43  (another  copy  28)  who  are  now 
prisoners  in  Sligo,  about  200  of  their  men  being  killed  in  the  place,  two  or 

three  and  twenty  drowned We  had  but  1  killed  of  Sir  W.  Cole's  troop 

and  6  horsemen  hurt  and  some  horse.  The  Archbishop  was  a  principal  agent  in 
their  wars,  and  one  of  their  supreme  Councell ;  divers  letters  and  papers  of 
importance  were  found  upon  him.  Prisoners  at  Sligo : — Morogh  ne  Do 
0' Flaherty,  Lieut.  Colonel  to  Richard  Bourk,  cousin  german  to  Earl  of  Clan- 
rickard,  and  his  next  heir  ;  John  Gardy,  Lieut.  Colonel  to  Sir  Tibbot  Bourk, 
eldest  son  to  Lord  Mayo  ;  Richard  Bourk,  Major  to  Richard  Bourk  ;  Captain 
William  O'Shaghnasie,  brother  to  Sir  Roger  O'Shaghnasie  ;  Captain  Garret 
Dillon,  son  to  Sir  Lucas  Dillon  ;  Captain  Costolagh,  with  divers  other  inferior 
officers.  Killed  : — The  titular  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  the  rebels'  President  of 
Connaught,  a  great  incendiary — Captain  Brown — brother  of  Geffory  Brown  the 
lawyer. " — The  above  account  taken  for  the  most  part  from  a  pamphlet  called 
"The  Irish  Cabinet,"  and  contained  in  box  41  of  the  Haliday  collection,  Ro}'al 
Irish  Academy.  Among  the  papers  found  on  this  occasion  was  the  Instructions 
of  the  King  to  Glamorgan,  which  was  at  once  ordered  to  be  printed  and 
published  by  the  Parliament,  in  order  to  excite  odium  against  the  King. 

*  The  Irish  Hierarchy  in  the  Seventeenth  Century. — By  Rev.  C.  P.  Meehan, 
M.R.I. A.,  etc.,  p.  118,  fifth  edition. 


HISTOEY  OF  SLIGO. 


that  the  Archbishop  was  first  hanged  and  then  decapitated  ;  * 
but  there  is  as  little  authority  for  this  statement,  as  there  is  for 
the  horrid  allegation  of  the  same  writer,  that  he  was  lured  on  to 
destruction  and  betrayed  by  Sir  James  Dillon,  t  There  is, 
however,  good  reason  to  think  that  the  prelate  was  treated  with 
great  barbarity  by  the  enemj7 ;  for  Bruodin,  his  near  relative, 
who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  facts,  narrates  J  that  he  was 
slain  after  quarter  given,  that  his  right  arm  was  first  cut  off, 
and  that  he  was  then  hacked  to  pieces. 

Lord  Taaffe,  the  day  after  the  disaster,  sent  a  trumpeter  to 
Sligo  to  demand  the  body,  but  the  enemy  would  not  part  with 
it  without  a  ransom  of  £30 ;  and  we  learn  from  Father 
Meehan  §  though  he  does  not  give  the  authority  on  which  he 


*  "  Now  assured  that  their  prisoner  was  that  great  prelate,  they  suffered  all 
others  to  go  at  pleasure,  hanged  and  beheaded  this  eminent  prelate." — 
Gilbert's  History  of  Affairs  in  Ireland,  1641-1652.  Part  1.,  p.  94. 

f  "  Sir  James  Dillon,  a  prime  pillar  in  Ormond's  buildinge,  taking  to  heart 
the  displacing  of  Taaffe,  never  made  scruple  of  his  oathe  to  the  contrary,  but 
thought  now  to  avenge  on  the  innocent  that  suposed  wronge,  though  it  fell  on 
God's  minister  ....  Such  is  the  fruite  of  faction  in  these  our  daies,  as  of 
adulterie  in  Herod's,  that  seeinge  we  have  not  got  a  Baptiste  to  beheade  him, 
will  pay  it  in  the  execrable  betraying  of  a  most  worthy  archbishop,  whose  like 
in  godlinesse,  liberalitie  and  zeal  was  not  to  be  had  in  Ireland." — Idem. 

After  reading  what  the  "  Aphorismical  Discovery  "  has  about  the  circum- 
stances of  Dr.  Queely's  death,  it  is  hard  to  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  the  writer 
was  at  once  ill  informed  and  ill  intentioned,  in  what  he  says  about  occurrences 
in  Sligo. 

J  "  Non  procul  a  castro  oppidi  de  Sligo  in  manus  Scotorum  rebellium,  incidifc 
patrise  pater,  ac  verus  gregis  sibi  commissi  pastor,  illustrissimus  Dominus 
Malachias  Queleus  Tuamensis  Archiepiscopus,  Generalis  Taaffe  in  bello  coad- 
jutor. Presulem  hunc  diguissimum,  barbari  Calvanistas,  post  datam  fidem, 
abscissa  prius  dextera,  AN.  1645,  in  minutas  secuerunt  partes." 

§  "  Irish  Hierarchy  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,"  p.  118,  fifth  edition.  The 
following  version  of  the  disaster  at  Sligo  was  forwarded  to  the  warden  of  Gal- 
way : — ''Here  is  a  true  tragedy  of  the  unhappy  expedition  to  Sligoe,  viz.,  last 
Saturday,  in  the  afternoon,  our  forces,  after  taking  the  Abbie  of  Sligoe,  and 
hearing  of  the  approach  of  Coote  with  strong  relief  from  the  North,  begun  to 
march  back  from  Sligoe ;  and  though  they  beate  the  enemy  that  day  and  the  day 
before,  yet  then,  a  few  horse  of  the  same  enemie  put  them  most  shamefully  to 
flight,  in  which  flight  (proh  dolor.)  my  lord  archbishop,  Father  Teige  Conel, 
Father  Augustine  Higen,  with  other  clergymen,  were  killed  and  pittifullie 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  165 

bases  the  statement,  that  "the  money  was  paid  by  Walter 
Lynch  (apparently,  the  Bishop  of  Clonfert,)  who  had  the 
remains  conveyed  to  Tuam,  where  fitting  obsequies  were  per- 
formed before  the  interment."  It  is  strange  that  no  account  has 
come  down  of  the  place  where  the  Archbishop  was  buried — a 
circumstance  tending  to  create  a  suspicion  that  the  ransom  was 
not  paid,  nor  the  body  recovered  ;  so  that,  after  all,  the  mutilated 
remains  may  rest  somewhere  in  or  near  Sligo. 

As  was  natural  enough,  the  death  of  Dr.  Queely  at  the  hands 
of  furious  Covenanters,  who  hated  his  faith  still  more  than  his 
person,  caused  him  to  be  regarded  by  many  as  a  martyr.  And 
this  opinion  was  spread  abroad  and  fostered  by  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  and  influential  men  of  the  period,  Father  Finaghty, 
commonly  known,  in  his  day,  and  long  after,  as  the  "  wonder- 
working priest  of  Elphin,"  about  whom  a  word  or  two  will  not 
be  out  of  place : — 

This  extraordinary  man  was,  perhaps,  not  a  very  unnatural 
phenomenon  of  the  sensational  times  in  which  he  lived. 
Originally  a  native  and  priest  of  the  diocese  of  Tuam,  he 
devoted  himself  during  the  persecution  of  Cromwell,  to  the  care 
of  the  people  of  that  diocese,  and  ministered  to  them  in  their 
places  of  refuge  and  concealment.  Numbers  of  other  priests 
did  the  same ;  but  whether  it  was  from  superior  zeal,  greater 

mangled,  and  soe  left  in  the  way  near  Sligoe.  General  Taffe  sent  a  trumpet  to 
Sligoe,  and  got  newes,  on  the  27th  instant,  that  the  Scots  will  not  part  with  my 
lord  archbishop's  body  without  getting  out  of  it  £30  sterling.  The  trumpetter 
brought  with  him  two  letters  from  the  commander  of  Sligoe,  offering  to  exchange 
prisoners  ;  ours  write  that  they  are  kindly  used  by  them,  and  desire  relief  and 
ransoine.  John  Garvey  is  prisoner  in  Newtown  with  Mr.  Jackson,  and  the  rest 
at  Sligoe ;  their  names  are  as  followeth  :  Lieut.-Colonels  Morogh  Flaherty  and 
John  Garvey.  Majors  Richard  Bourke  and  Wm.  Shaughnessy.  Captains 
Gerald  Dillon  and  Roger  Costelo.  Lieutenants  Christopher  Ryan,  Conor 
O'Hayne,  and  Tiege  Flaherty.  Cornets,  John  Barnewell  and  Wm.  Ferel. 
Ensigns,  John  Bedlow,  Bryan  Kelly,  Hugh  McGillecooly,  and  James  Linch. 
Troopers,  Richard  Bedlow,  Edward  Fitzgerald,  Garret  Dillon,  Richard  Bourk, 
John  Boyle,  John  FitzGarret,  Francis  Cadell,  Christopher  Kent,  Richard  Bourk 
and  John  Higgin.  Drummers,  Thomas  Walsh  and  Connor  Quinn.  Two  foot- 
men with  a  cornet  and  seven  troopers  formerly  taken  in  the  skirmish  at  Balli- 
mote."  The  writer  of  above  was  John  Dowly,  Vicar-General  of  Tuam. 


166  HISTORY    OF   SLIGO. 


eloquence,  or  some  other  peculiar  gifts,  he  was  soon  singled 
out  by  the  people  from  his  fellow  labourers,  so  that  he  was 
followed  often  by  crowds  of  a  thousand,  fifteen  hundred,  two 
thousand  persons,  through  woods,  and  bogs,  and  mountains, 
wherever  he  turned  from  the  troops  that  scoured  the  country  in 
pursuit. 

Sharing  to  the  full  the  dangers  and  privations  of  his  followers; 
sleeping  like  them  on  the  bare  ground  in  the  open  air  ;  subsist- 
ing like  them  on  coarse  and  scanty  food  ;  exposed  like  them,  and 
even  more  than  them,  to  the  vengeance  of  the  persecutor ;  he 
gained  daily  more  and  more  on  their  affections,  until  at  last  he 
was  regarded  by  them  rather  as  a  prophet  of  the  type  of  Ellas 
or  Eliseus,  than  as  an  ordinary  priest.  Nor  was  this  very 
surprising ;  for,  substitute  Cromwell  for  Jezabel ;  the  wilds  of 
Connemara  for  the  "  desert  of  Damascus ;  "  the  mountain  stream 
for  the  "torrent  Carith ;"  and  a  sleep  under  the  hazel  or  holly,  for 
the  "  sleep  under  the  shadow  of  the  juniper  tree/'  and  the 
parallel  between  these  prophets  and  the  priest,  is  so  striking,  as 
to  suggest  naturally  the  idea  of  the  people. 

One  can  understand  too,  how,  in  his  peculiar  circumstances, 
seeing  himself  constantly  surrounded  by  persons  who  credited 
him  with  supernatural  powers,  Father  Finaghty  came  ultimately 
to  regard  himself  in  the  same  light,  and  to  exercise  those  powers 
with  which  he  believed  himself  invested,  as  we  find  him  doing 
even  under  the  Commonwealth,  but  more  freely  and  regularly, 
under  the  Restoration.  In  the  year  1662  he  procured,  we  are 
told,  a  pass  from  some  one  high  in  the  State,  authorizing  him 
to  travel  where  he  liked  through  Ireland,  and  to  meet  the 
people — a  privilege  which  he  made  use  of,  by  traversing  much 
of  the  country  "  praying,  touching,  crossing  (exorcising),  blessing 
wells,  and  imparting  to  their  waters  his  own  virtue."  Where- 
ever  he  turned  the  sick  came  to  him,  or  were  brought  to  him,  in 
great  numbers;  and  as — to  use  his  own  words — uhe  never 
denied  the  gracious  gift  of  curing  all  diseases,"  he  ministered  to 
everyone  that  applied.  In  time  his  fame  reached  England,  and 
the  royal  circle,  and  he  was  even  introduced  or  smuggled  into- 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  167 


the  palace  of  Charles  II.  to  touch  the  eyes  of  one  of  the  Queen's 
ladies  in  waiting,  who  had  lost  her  sight. 

There  is  no  need  to  say  that  Father  Finaghty  and  his  pro- 
ceedings became  a  subject  of  absorbing  interest  throughout  the 
country.  To  the  mass  of  the  people,  and  to  a  few  men  of  station 
and  abilities,  as  Geoffrey  Browne,  the  famous  lawyer,  and  Mr. 
Beling,  the  Father  was  a  saint,  pure  and  simple,  with  his 
credentials  in  his  works ;  while  some  scientists  and  thinkers, 
including  Sir  W.  Petty,  Sir  R.  Southwell,  Dr.  Yarner,  and 
Father  Peter  Walsh,  who  took  a  more  human  view  of  the 
subject,  did  not  show  the  less  interest,  on  that  account,  in  his 
doings;  observing  him  in  public  and  in  private,  attending  his 
meetings,  studying  his  movements,  submitting  themselves  to 
his  operations,  and  leaving  no  stone  unturned  to  get  at  the 
secret  of  his  success,  whatever  it  was.  Even  Ormonde  himself, 
either  for  some  reason  of  State,  or  from  curiosity,  desired  a 
conference  with  him,  but  the  priest,  after  the  time  and  place  of 
the  meeting  were  fixed,  falling  ill,  and  needing  change  of  air,  or 
pretending  to  need  it,  left  Dublin  for  the  west  of  Ireland,  before 
the  appointed  day,  so  that  the  interview  -with  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant never  came  off. 

This  remarkable  man  seems  to  have  believed  that  Dr.  Queely's 
death  was  a  genuine  martyrdom;  for,  in  dealing  with  the 
diseased,  he  usually  touched  them  with  relics,  or  supposed  relics 
of  the  archbishop ;  and  he  gave  out  that  he  had  cured  more 
than  500  sick  persons  by  the  application,  with  the  repetition, 
during  the  process,  of  the  words: — "If  Almighty  God  wills 
that  the  soul  of  him  whose  relics  are  now  present,  should  be 
worshipped  here  on  earth  with  the  honour  due  to  a  saint  and 
martyr,  let  this  infirmity  depart."* 


*  Collections  on  Irish  Church  History.  By  L.  F.  Renehan,  D.D.,  Vol.  I., 
p.  405.  In  a  letter  of  Kinuccini  to  Cardinal  Panfilio,  dated  Kilkenny,  Nov.  20, 
1645,  the  Nuncio  writes  of  Dr.  Queely,  "During  the  few  days  I  was  at 
Limerick,  very  sad  news  for  the  Kingdom  reached  me,  namely,  the  unfortunate 
death  of  the  archbishop  of  Tuam.  He  died  before  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
knowing  him,  not  to  speak  of  having  dealings  with  him,  as  was  suggested  to  me 


168  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


The  words,  "or  supposed  relics,"  are  introduced  advisedly 
in  the  preceding  sentence ;  for  though  the  opinion  was  pretty 
general,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  that  Father 
Finaghty  employed  in  his  proceedings  the  real  relics  of  Dr. 
Queely,  the  matter  was  not  regarded  as  certain  by  the  Tuam 
Synod  or  Congregation  of  1660,  as,  after  examining  the  sub- 
ject, they  decide  or  decree  as  follows: — "Different  accounts 
having  been  laid  before  us  regarding  those  bones  and  relics  of 
the  Most  Reverend  Malachy,  the  last  archbishop  of  Tuam,  slain 
in  the  late  Catholic  war  by  the  heretics,  which  the  Reverend 
James  Feenaghty,  priest  and  exorcist  of  the  diocese  of  Elphin, 
makes  use  of  for  expelling  demons  and  curing  other  infirmities, 
as  well  as  for  other  purposes,  the  Synod  having  inquired  into  their 
genuineness,  although  it  finds  that  they  appear  by  the  divine 
power  to  effect  some  signs  and  cures,  still,  for  just  causes,  it  has 
deferred  till  further  proof  is  offered,  to  recognize  them  as  the 
true  and  undoubted  relics  of  the  holy  man  (Delatis  ad  hanc 
congregationem  diversis  rationibus  de  ossibus  et  reliquiis  bonse 
memoriae  Reverendissimi  Domini  Malachiae  ultimi  Tuamensis 
Archiepiscopi  in  nupero  Catholicorum  bello  interfecti,  ab  Hsere- 
ticis,  quibus  utitur  Reverendus  D.  Jacobus  Finachty  sacerdos 


by  the  instructions  of  your  Eminence.  This  worthy  prelate,  after  the  loss  of 
Sligo,  returned  from  Kilkenny  to  Connaught  to  repair  the  disorders  of  that 
province  j  and  I  have  been  informed  that  when  departing  from  Kilkenny  he  took 
away  his  things,  and  bade  farewell  to  many  persons,  as  if  he  were  never  to  return, 
mentioning  certain  prophecies  concerning  bishopsof  his  Church, to  which  vain  sorts 
of  predictions  I  perceive  this  people  to  be  much  inclined.  When  he  returned  to 
the  siege  of  the  beforenamed  castle,  he  heard  that  the  enemy  in  their  turn 
were  becoming  increased  in  number,  and  not  at  once  taking  the  necessary  pre- 
cautions, either  from  disbelief  of  the  intelligence,  or  for  some  other  reason, 
he  suffered  the  enemy  to  fall  upon  him  and  was  put  to  flight.  At  first  two 
Religious,  whom  together  with  some  other  captains  he  had  with  him,  were 
slain  near  him,  and  at  last  he  himself  had  his  life  suddenly  ended  by  a 
pistol  shot  in  his  reins.  They  give  out  that  he  was  heard  to  say  before  ex- 
piring, that  up  to  that  time  he  had  given  all  his  strength  to  defend  the  Catholic 
religion,  and  that  he  then  willingly  gave  his  life  for  the  same  cause.  And  truly 
he  worthily  closed  the  period  of  his  earthly  career  with  acquiring  in  heaven  a 
reward  corresponding  to  his  great  merits. — Brady's  Episcopal  Succession,  Vol. 
xi.  p.  141. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  169 

€t  Exorcista  Dicecesis  Elphinensis  inter  alia  expellendis  Daemo- 
nibus  et  aliis  infirmitatibus  curandis;  facta  inquisitione  de 
veritate  eorum  quamvis  nonnulla  signa  et  curationes  Divina 
virtute  videntur  operari,  justas  tamen  ob  causas  in  ulteriorem 
probationem  distulit  Synodus  easdem  pro  veris  et  indubitatis 
viri  sancti  reliquiis  admittere.) 

The  place  of  Dr.  Queely's  death  seems  to  be  as  great  a 
mystery  as  the  place  of  his  burial.  *  According  to  all  he  fell 
"  near  Sligo,"  or  "  under  Sligo,"  or,  "  not  far  from  the  castle 
of  Sligo,"  but  the  exact  spot,  which  was  called  "  Clare,"  "  Clara," 
or  "  Claragh,"  has  not  been  hitherto  pointed  out  or  discovered. 
Besides  the  Claragh  in  question  there  were  two  Claras  in  the 
county  of  Sligo,  one  in  Carbury  and  the  other  in  Leyney  ;  but 
neither  of  these  could  be  the  scene  of  the  tragedy — not  the 
former,  which  lies  in  the  parish  of  Ahamlish  and  far  below  the 
Sligo  river,  which  the  archbishop  did  not  cross ;  nor  the  latter, 
which  is  distant  some  fifteen  miles  to  the  south  of  Sligo — far  be- 
yond the  range  of  the  action  in  which  he  lost  his  life.  The  writer 
is  satisfied  that  the  spot  in  question  is  that  now  called  Cleveragh, 
or  "  Cleveragh  Demesne  ; "  for,  in  the  first  place,  Claragh  and 
Cleveragh  are  so  like,  as  words,  that  one  might  easily  be  con- 
founded with  the  other  ;  secondly,  Claragh  is  actually  given 
as  an  alias  for  "  Cleveragh  or  Cleuragh "  in  the  Tripartite 
Deed  of  the  Division  of  Sligo  between  Strafford,  Wilson,  and 
Lesley  ;  thirdly,  Cleveragh  is  "  near  Sligo,"  or  "  under  Sligo ;  " 
fourthly,  it  is  '•  not  far  from  the  castle  of  the  town  of  Sligo:1  (Non 
procul  a  castro  oppidi  de  Sligo. — Bruodiri) ;  and  lastly,  adjoin- 

*  The  following  epitaph  was  intended  for  his  tomb,  should  the  resting  place 
of  the  remains  be  ever  discovered  : — 

"  Praesulis  hie  multo  laniatum  vulnere  corpus 
Canitiesque  sacro  sanguine  sparsa  jacet 
Pro  rege  non  renuit  vitam  profundere  pastor 
Quam  bene  pastorem  mors  ista  decet  bonum. 
Purpurei  fulgete  Patres  in  murice  sanguis 
Pulchrius  hie  vestri  muricis  igne  rubet." 

—Father   Meehan's— The  Irish  Hierarchy,  p.  119.      The 
word  "  rege "  in  the  third   line  ii  probably  a  misprint 


170  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


ing,  as  it  does,  the  river  Sligo  and  Lough  Gill,  it  is  almost  the 
only  place,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sligo,  where  the  "  Two  or 
Three  and  twenty  drowned,"  mentioned  in  the  bulletin,  could 
have  met  with  their  fate.  These  reasons  seem  to  establish 
satisfactorily  the  identification  of  Claragh  and  Cleveragh ;  and 
they  are  greatly  strengthened  by  the  proximity  of  Cleveragh  to 
the  Abbey,  which  the  archbishop  had  just  taken,  and  from 
which  he  must  have  begun  his  retreat. 

Had  Dr.  Queely  known  more  of  the  art  of  war,  he  would  have 
conducted  his  attack  on  Sligo  with  more  caution,  or,  perhaps, 
would  have  declined  the  attempt  altogether,  as  Lord  Taaffe, 
General  Preston,  and  Owen  Roe  O'Neil  deliberately  did. 

Taaffe  having  received  a  commission  from  Ormonde  to  reduce 
and  punish  such  Connaught  garrisons  as  had  violated  the  articles 
of  the  Cessation,  levied  an  army  of  about  3,000  men  for  the 
purpose  ;  and  with  these  troops  took  Tulsk  by  storm,  and  Castle 
Coote  by  siege,  received  the  surrender  of  Elphin  and  James- 
town on  conditions,  and,  getting  the  governors  of  Boyle  to 
engage  on  oath  to  observe  the  Cessation,  reappointed  them  in 
charge  of  the  place.  But  finding  the  capture  of  Sligo  a  rather 
perilous  undertaking,  the  road  near  Boyle  being  impracticable 
for  the  carriage  of  ordnance,  and  the  country  waste  and  des- 
titute of  provisions,*  he  deferred  the  enterprise  to  some  more 
suitable  occasion. 

Similar  considerations  prevented  General  Preston  from 
measuring  his  strength  with  the  Parliamentarians  of  Sligo, 
though  the  Confederation  was  most  anxious  to  see  them  dis- 
lodged from  the  place.  It  was  hoped  and  expected  that  Preston 
would  march  from  Boyle  on  Sligo ;  and  the  ApJiorismical 
Discovery  goes  so  far  as  to  state  that  "  General  Preston  and  his 


*  In  a- letter  to  Ormonde  (August  27,  1645)  he  writes,  "My  not  advancing 
from  the  Boile  to  Sligoe  was  occasioned  through  want  of  provisions,  it  being 
impossible  to  subsist  in  so  depopulated  a  country,  and  withal  there  being 
many  impediments  to  the  carriage  of  artilery,  without  which  nothing  of 
advantage  could  there  be  performed,  so  I  now  only  imploy  thither  partys  of 
hors  and  foot,  to  comfort  the  few  inhabitants  and  preserve  the  harvest."^ 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  171 


armie  marched  forwarde  to  Sligo  (after  taking  castle  of  Ros- 
common)  where  all  the  enemie  garrisons  were,  all  which  were 
surrendered  upon  demande,  on  sight  of  the  armie  and  ordi- 
nance ;  "  but  this  positive  and  circumstantial  statement  is 
belied  by  the  General's  own  letter,  explaining  why  he  did  not 
even  attempt  the  service  expected  from  him.*  Preston's  letter 
from  Boyle  is  dated  27th  July ;  and  as  peace  was  proclaimed 
on  the  30th  of  that  month,  there  was  no  need  for  further  action 
on  his  part. 

Owen  Roe  O'Neil  in  turn  was  directed  by  the  Confederates  to 
wrest  Sligo  from  those  who  held  it  for  the  Parliament  of  Eng- 
land. Undeterred  by  the  difficulties  of  the  enterprise,  and  the 
obstacles  in  the  way,  this  cool  headed  and  able  general  accepted 
the  duty  laid  on  him,  and,  as  a  first  step  towards  its  accom- 
plishment, engaged  his  troops  in  making  a  suitable  military  road 
across  the  Curlews.  But  they  were  not  left  long  at  the  work  ; 
for  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Confederation,  with  an  incon- 
stancy of  purpose,  which  was  not  peculiar  to  this  occasion, 
suddenly  ordered  O'Neil  and  his  army  to  Leinster,  so  that 
Owen  Roe  had  no  opportunity  of  performing  anything  note- 
worthy in  regard  to  Sligo,  though  there  is  abundant  proof  that 
no  one  appreciated  better  than  he  did,  the  vast  importance  of 
the  place,  as  a  cardinal  point  in  the  strategy  of  the  war. 

*  This  letter  is  written  from  Boile  Campe,  addressed  to  Lord  Muskery  and 
others,  and  dated  July  27,  1646.  Preston  writes,  "We  hold  it  may  not 
stand  with  the  safe  tie  of  the  armie  to  advance  towards  Sligoe,  until  the  General 
of  Ulster  be  with  his  armie  in  the  field  .  .  .  Moreover  our  artilerie  cannot  be 
carried  over  the  Curlews,  unless  we  draw  small  pieces  with  much  difficulty. 
Neither  have  we  any  match  but  1,000  weight,  which  will  not  suffice  for  two 
days  in  a  siege  .  .  .  We  have  intelligence  of  the  enemy  marching  to  Sligoe,  to 
whom  we  must  give  battle  if  we  goe  so  far.  We  shall  remain  heere  for  further 
orders,  as  going  further  will  certainly  engage  us  in  a  battle,  for  which  we  fynd 
not  ourselves  in  fighting  equipage.  If  it  shall  be  thought  fit  that  we  advance, 
we  must  have  a  month's  means  at  least,  without  which  we  cannot  move, 
without  the  hazard  of  losing  the  whole  army,  for  all  the  way  before  us  is  so 
destroyed  and  waste  that  nothing  is  to  be  had  for  monie  or  otherwise,  soe 
that  every  soldier  must  have  forth  with  him  at  least  a  month's  provisions." 
Peace  being  proclaimed  on  the  30th  July,  Preston  had  nothing  more  to  do  in 
regard  to  Sligo. 


172  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


Sligo,  thus  held  for  the  Parliament,  was  a  thorn  in  the  side 
of  Ormonde,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  Confederates.  Not  being 
in  a  state  to  secure  it  by  force,  he  set  on  foot  secret  negotia- 
tions with  two  of  the  Parliament's  officers,  Colonel  Henry  Gore 
and  his  brother,  Sergeant  Major  Francis  Gore  (direct  ancestor 
of  the  Lissadell  family),  which  he  hoped  would  bring  him  to  the 
possession  of  the  town.  These  officers,  like  some  others  in  the 
North,  either  sick  of  the  excesses  of  the  Parliament,  or  con- 
vinced that  the  royal  cause  would  triumph  in  the  end,  and 
wishing  to  be  on  the  winning  side,  were  not  indisposed  to  treat 
with  him.  His  proposals  were  made  through  Sergeant  Major 
General,  Sir  George  Monro,  whom  Ormonde  instructed  to  offer 
himself  to  the  Gores  as  a  person  authorized  by  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant to  treat  with  them ;  to  assure  them  that  in  case  they 
brought  over  with  them  300  armed  men,  these  men  should  be 
constituted  regiments,  should  be  placed  under  the  command  of 
the  two  brothers,  and  should  have  provision  made  for  them  as 
for  the  rest  of  the  royal  army ;  and  to  inform  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Henry,  the  elder  brother,  that  if  Sligo  was  reduced  by  his 
means,  he  should  be  appointed  its  governor.* 

These  pourparlers  did  not  gain  their  object,  at  least,  at  the 
time,  no  doubt,  for  some  cause  beyond  the  control  of  the  nego- 
tiators; for  Sir  Francis  Gore's  good  will,  on  this  and  other 
occasions,  was  rewarded  under  the  Act  of  Settlement,  by  a  grant 
of  lands  in  Kilkenny,  Sligo  and  Galway.  Henry  died  in  1651, 
long  before  he  could  receive  a  similar  reward. 

The  honour  of  recovering  Sligo  was  reserved  for  Lord  Clan- 
rickarde.  His  army  came  before  the  place  on  the  3rd  of  July 
(1649),  and  after  a  week's  negotiation  and  the  threat  of  an 
assault,  the  town  was  surrendered  to  his  lordship,  the  besieged 
receiving  liberal  conditions.  On  the  same  occasion  the  neigh- 
bouring garrison  of  Newtown  was  surrendered,  a  place,  accord- 
ing to  Clanrickarde,  little  inferior,  if  inferior  at  all,  to  Sligo. 

*  These  particulars  are  contained  in  a  letter  of  Ormonde  to  Clanrickarde,  and 
dated  May  11,  1649.  This  letter  is  in  the  Carte  Collection. 


HISTORY  OF   SLTGO.  173 


The  forts  would  hardly  have  been  given  up  so  tamely  only 
that  there  were  divisions  and  disaffection  among  those  who  held 
them.  Ormonde's  negotiations,  after  all,  bore  fruit,  so  that  his 
friends  were  inside  as  well  as  outside  Sligo,  and  when  the  more 
fiery  spirits  of  the  garrison  would  resist  a  toute  outrance  the 
cooler  and  more  calculating  heads,  which  he  had  gained  over — the 
Gores,  and  Sir  R.  Stewart,  who  was  still  Governor — counselled, 
and  brought  about,  compliance  with  Clanrickarde's  demands.* 
The  Parliamentarians  charged  a  Scotch  officer  named  Henderson, 
with  betraying  the  town  to  Clanrickarde. 

There  is  reason  to  think  that  the  O'Connors  were  as  little 
inclined  as  the  Parliamentarians  to  submit  to  Lord  Clanrickarde, 
if  left  to  themselves ;  but  they  were  restrained  from  opposing 
him,  by  a  letter  of  Major-General  Lucas  Taaffe,  on  the  part  of 
the  Confederation  of  Kilkenny,  calling  on  them  to  submit  to  his 
Lordship,  or  to  take  the  alternative  of  being  "branded  as 
traitors."  Had  they  opposed,  it  would  have  been  in  the  interest 
of  the  Nuntio's  party  in  the  Supreme  Council.  Taaffe's  letter 
is  dated,  April  29,  1649,  and  is  addressed  to  Captain  Donough 
O'Connor  and  Captain  Roger  O'Connor,  or  either  of  them.f 


*The  Parliamentarians  gave  out  that  Colonel  Henderson,  a  Scotchman, 
betrayed  the  place  to  the  Irish.  "  Sligo,"  writes  one  of  them,  "  sold  to  Clan- 
rickarde by  Henderson,  whereby  Connaught  is  lost." — Gilbert's  History  of  Affairs 
in  Ireland,  Part  ii.,  pp.  335  &  443.  Clanrickarde  reported  the  capture  of  Sligo  to 
Ormonde  in  a  letter  dated  9th  July,  1649,  and  written  from  Sligo  Camper  — 
"  Upon  the  3d  of  this  present  month  I  sat  down  before  the  forte  of  Sligo,  and 
sent  a  summons  to  it  which  procured  a  treaty — and  that  broken,  and  prepar- 
ations for  an  assault,  upon  a  second  treaty,  occasioned  by  a  despatch  of  Sir  R. 
Stewart,  we  came  to  a  seasonable  agreement,  and  the  7th  of  this  month  it  was 
surrendered  to  me,  upon,  I  must  confess,  somewhat  large  conditions,  if  the 
importance  of  the  place,  and  the  danger  so  far  from  assistance  did  not  render  it 
necessary.  I  was  attacked  the  same  night  suddenly  by  a  powerful  party  of 
enemys  horse  and  dragoons  under  Richard  Coote,  but  seeing  we  had  the  forte, 
and  were  ready  to  receive  them,  they  retired.  I  gained  7  pieces  of  ordnance, 
two  drakes,  and  above  100  barrels  of  powder,  and  match  proportionable.  To- 
morrow I  expect  surrender  of  Newtown,  a  place,  though  not  so  famous  in  print, 
yet  of  equal  strength  to  this  forte,  which  in  the  opinion  of  others  of  better  judg- 
ment, is  a  very  strong  and  regular  work,  &c." 

t  This  letter  is  in  the  Carte  Collection. 


174  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


At  no  time  since  the  beginning  of  hostilities  in  1641,  was  the 
importance  of  Sligo,  as  a  place  of  garrison,  more  appreciated  than 
at  the  time  we  have  now  reached.  Complicated  as  the  drama 
of  the  war  was  all  through,  the  plot  thickened  as  things  were 
coming  towards  a  close.  In  the  North  there  were  four  indepen- 
dent armies,  each,  with  different  views  and  interests  :  Owen 
Roe's;  Sir  Charles  Coote's.;  that  of  the  Scotch ;  and  that  of  Sir 
R  Stewart  and  the  Lord  of  Ards ;  while  in  the  South  there  was 
Ormonde's,  or,  the  royal  army ;  Preston's ;  and  that  of  Inchiquin, 
who  was  acting  now  in  concert  with,  and  in  subordination  to, 
Ormonde,  but  who  could  not  be  relied  on  to  persevere  in  such 
sentiments  and  action.  And  in  nearly  each  of  those  armies  there 
were  sections  little  less  hostile  to  each  other,  than  to  the  enemy 
or  enemies,  these  differences  affecting  even  the  English  and 
Scotch,  who  had  lately  come  over,  as  if  there  was  something 
in  the  air  or  soil  of  unfortunate  Ireland,  which  served  to  disin- 
tegrate and  divide  everything  it  touched,  native  or  foreign. 

In  this  muddle  or  jungle  the  leaders  of  the  armies  were  more 
than  ordinarily  anxious  to  take  advantage  of  their  rivals,  and 
without  due  regard,  apparently,  to  either  principle  or  decency. 
Even  Owen  Roe  showed  a  somewhat  strange  disposition  to  ally 
himself  with  the  enemies  of  the  country,  and  engaged  in  trans- 
actions which  had  an  equivocal  look,  such  as  his  dealings  with 
Monk,  and  more  especially,  his  raising  the  siege  of  Derry  in  the 
interest  of  Sir  Charles  Coote.  An  Aphorismical  Discovery  of 
Treasonable  Faction  (Part  iii.,  p.  211),  excuses  Owen  Roe  on 
the  plea  of  necessity : — "  In  the  beginning  of  May,  O'Neil,  finding 
himself  destitute  of  all  possibility  of  doing  good,  and  having  no 
means  left  him  under  God's  providence,  but  a  few  poor  creaghts 
of  his  own  country  to  maintain  himself  and  the  few  men  he  kept 
on  foot  still,  nor  no  ammunition,  nor  means  left  to  get  anything 
unless  by  taking  some  desperate  course,  on  which,  he  settled  his 
thoughts,  and  off-hand  summoned  a  provincial  council  to  meet 
at  Belturbet,  when  it  was  concluded  (upon  a  former  invitation 
sent  by  Sir  Charles  Coote),  to  treat  with  him  for  ammunition, 
and  commissioners  appointed  immediately  to  meet  him  for  that 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  175 


purpose,  or  his  commissioners  at  Newtown,  near  Drumahaire 
(Dromahair),  where  Colonel  Richard  Coote  and  Major  Ormsby 
met,  and  agreed  to  give  thirty  barrels  of  powder,  ball  and  match 
proportionately,  three  hundred  beeves,  or  £400  in  money  con- 
ditionally, O'Neill^  should  march  with  his  army  to  relieve 
Deny." 

Both  O'Neil  and  Coote  were  eager  to  obtain  a  footing  in  Sligo. 
O'Neil  applied  to  have  two  hundred  men  of  his  own  received 
into  the  place  for  the  purpose,  as  he  alleged,  of  strengthening 
and  guarding  it  against  the  Parliamentarians,  and  promised,  on 
his  honour,  to  withdraw  this  contingent  when  asked  by  the  Gover- 
nor to  do  so ;  and  to  induce  Sir  Garret  Moore  to  accede  to  the 
request,  Owen  Roe  assured  him  that,  to  his  own  knowledge,  Sir 
Charles  Coote  had  offered  a  bribe  of  £1000  to  somebody  in  the 
garrison  to  betray  it,  and  had  declared  that  "  money  would  not 
keep  the  place  from  him."  What  opened  Moore's  eyes  still 
more  to  the  dangers  that  threatened  was,  that  he  was  informed 
of  an  offer  made  to  O'Neil,  apparently  by  a  person  in  the  town, 
whom  Moore  did  not  know,  to  surrender*  it  secretly  to  that 
general.  The  arrival  of  Cromwell  put  a  stop  to  these  negoti- 
ations. 

Sligo  was  not  troubled  from  this  time  to  May,  1651,  when  Sir 
Charles  Coote  summoned  the  Governor,  Sir  Garret  Moore,  to 
surrender.  It  is  probable  that  this  summons  was  only  a  ruse  on 
the  part  of  Coote,  to  throw  Moore  off  his  guard  while  the 
northern  army  was  passing  the  place.  However  this  may  be, 
Moore  returned  a  spirited  and  defiant  answer  to  the  summons, 


*  These  particulars  are  contained  in  a  letter  of  Sir  Garret  Moore  to  Ormonde 
dated  Sligo,  Sept.  29,  1639  (Carte  Collection,  Vol.  25),  in  which  Moore  says  :— 
"  Gen.  O'Neil  was  telling  me  that  Sir  Charles  Coote  sent  him  for  great  newes 
that  this  place  was  taken  by  Terlagh  McCafferie,  and  does  assure  me  that 
money  will  not  keep  it  from  him,  and  that  to  his  knowledge  he  offered  £1000 
to  get  it.  And  I  am  also  informed  that  another  undertook  to  get  it  for  Gen. 
O'Neil  himself,  but  who  the  betrayer  should  be  I  am  ignorant  of — Gen.  O'Neil 
advised  me  to  be  very  careful  of  this  place,  being  of  consequence.  He  sent  an 
offer  to  Col.  Acheson  to  send  unto  the  town  200  men,  and  that  upon  his  honour 
and  parole  he  would  draw  them  out  when  Col.  Acheson  pleased." 


176  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


which  must  have  convinced  Sir  Charles  that  he  could  not  get 
Sligo  without  fighting  for  it,  and  thus  losing  time  that  might  be 
more  profitably  employed  elsewhere.* 

If  Sligo  escaped  on  this  occasion  the  tender  mercies  of  Coote, 
the  respite  did  not  last  long.  Having  gained  his  main  object,  in 
securing  a  passage  for  his  troops  into  the  heart  of  Connaught, 
Sir  Charles  kept  the  Irish  of  the  province  engaged,  while  Ireton 
was  prosecuting  the  siege  of  Limerick,  which  city  was  surrendered 
to  him  on  the  27th  October,  1651,  under  circumstances  which 
reflect  little  credit  on  the  inhabitants.  Ireton  being  removed  by 
death,  Coote  laid  siege  to  Gal  way,  and  obtained  possession  of  the 
place  on  the  12th  May,  1652,  an  event  which  practically  closed 
the  war.  Soon  after  this  the  garrisons  around  Sligo  gave  in : 
Ballyshannon  surrendering  on  the  26th  May ;  Newtown,  at  the 
head  of  Lough  Gill,  on  the  3rd  June ;  and  Ballymote,  on  the 
24th  June ;  and,  on  the  14th  July,  articles  for  the  surrender  of 
all  the  Connaught  forces,  including  those  of  Sligo,  were  agreed 
on  between  Colonel  Richard  Coote,  Major  Robert  Ormsby, 


*  The  following  are  the  summons  and  answer: — "Sir, — Being  come  hither 
with  the  army  under  my  command,  I  thought  fitt  before  any  attempt  against 
that  place  under  you,  to  desire  to  speake  with  you  for  prevention  of  effusion  of 
Christian  blood,  which  if  you  accept  of,  this  shall  be  your  conducte  on  my  repu- 
tation for  the  freeing  of  you  from  any  prejudice  or  violence  from  any  under  my 
command,  either  in  your  coming  hither,  or  returne  at  your  owne  pleasure,  which 
being  all,  I  rest  your  servant, 

"  CHARLES  COOTE." 
(Answer.) 

"  Sir, — I  have  receaved  your  letter  whear  you  desire  to  speake  with  me  before 
you  make  any  attempt  on  this  place  to  prevent  the  effusion  of  Christian  blood. 
In  answer  to  you,  I  make  this  returne,  that  had  I  found  by  any  assurance  from 
you  an  inclination  in  you  to  become  a  good  subject,  and  to  fall  from  those  rebel- 
lious spirits  who  had  a  hand  in  the  unparalleled  murder  of  our  late  soveraine 
Charles  the  first,  and  to  repent  making  yourself  guilty  thereof,  in  having  joyned 
in  the  actors.  Upon  that  score  you  may  probably  speake  with  me,  with  assur- 
ance that  any  proposal  made  by  you  shall  have  a  safe  conveyance  to  his  Excel- 
lency the  Lord  Marquesse  of  Clanrickarde,  Lord  Deputy- Generall  of  Ireland. 
Without  such  a  resolution  in  you,  you  may  not  expect,  though  tender  of 
Christian  blood  as  any  man,  any  personall  conference  with  me.  As  for  your 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  177 


Captain  Henry  Sankey,  and  Adjutant  Charles  Holcroft,  by 
authority  of  Right  Honorable  Charles  Coote,  Lord  President  of 
Connaught;  and  Commissary  John  Reynolds,  on  the  behalf  of 
the  Commonwealth  of  England,  on  the  one  part;  and  Lord 
Viscount  Mayo,  Major-General  Lucas  Taaffe,  Colonel  Garrett 
Moore,  Colonel  Hugh  O'Connor,  and  Colonel  Hugh  O'Kelly, 
for  and  behalf  of  themselves,  and  behalf  and  by  authority  of 
Sir  Ulick  Bourke,  Baronett,  Colonel  Richard  Burke,  Colonel 
William  Bourke,  Colonel  Francis  Taaffe,  Colonel  Donough 
Kelly,  Captain  Thomas  Bourke,  Captain  John  Bourke,  Colonel 
Terence  McDerrnott,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Donnell  O'Connor, 
Captain  John  Burke,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bryan  O'Kelly, 
Colonel  Teigue  O'Connor  Sligo,  Colonel  Ulick  Bourke,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Teigue  Bourke,  Colonel  Teige  O'Kelly,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Dermot  O'Daly,  Captain  Cormuck  O'Hara, 
Captain  William  Donnellan,  and  Captain  Carbery  McEgan, 
and  in  the  behalf  of  all  others  comprised  in  these  articles,  and 

attempts  you  pretend  to  make,  or  any  of  your  partie  against  this  place,  rest 
assured,  by  the  grace  of  God,  you  shall  meete  an  entertainment  suitable  to  your 
attempt,  and  becoming  me  to  give  you — as  a  person  to  whom  is  intrusted  the 
maintaining  and  preserving  this  place  by  the  sayd  Lord  Deputy  for  his  Majesty 
and  my  countrey's  use,  and  soe  conclude, 

"  Sligo  Fort,  the  19th  May,  1651, 

"  Your  servant, 

"GARRETT  MOORE." 
"  For  Sir  Charles  Coote,  Knight  and  Baronett." 

Coote's  movements  on  this  important  occasion  are  thus  described  in  a  Diary 
of  the  day  given  in  Mr.  Gilbert's  History  of  Affairs  in  Ireland,  Part  iii.,  p.  232 : 
"The  17th  (June),  the  Lord  President's  troops  marched  from  Ballyshannon, 
within  6  miles  of  Sligoe,  where  they  continued  2  daies.  The  20th  they  passed 
the  river  of  Sligoe,  where  they  rested  5  daies,  expecting  the  coming  upp  of 
Colonel  Russell's  regiment ;  the  26th  they  marched  from  within  2  miles  of 
Sligoe,  on  the  Connaught  side,  2  miles  further  to  the  bridge  of  Killone  (Collooney), 
.  .  .  They  found  that  Clanrickarde,  with  a  considerable  part  of  his  army, 
had  possessed  the  passages  of  the  Curlews,  a  place  of  exceeding  great  advantage 
to  them  and  disadvantage  to  ours  ;  and  accordingly  leaving  the  Curlews  to  the 
left  hand,  they  turned  toward  the  sea,  and  by  strange  and  unexpected  waies  by 
Ballaghy  passe,  got  undiscovered  into  the  county  of  Mayo." 

VOL.  I.  M 


178  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


now  in  arms  in  the  province  of  Connaught  against  the  Parlia- 
ment, of  the  other  part.* 

Order  upon  order  was  now  issued  by  the  Parliamentary 
authorities  for  clearing  the  Irish  out  of  the  towns  and  cities  of 
the  country  ;  and  the  spirit  in  which  those  orders  were  carried 
out  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  chief  actors  under 
them  regarded  it  as  a  duty  of  religion,  no  less  than  of  self- 
interest,  to  exterminate  or  banish  the  natives,  and  to  treat  them 
as  the  Hebrews  formerly  treated  the  Hethite  and  the  Gergezite, 
and  the  Amorrhite,  and  the  Chanaanite,  and  the  Pherezite, 
and  the  Hevite,  and  the  Jebusite,  taking  as  addressed  to  them- 
selves the  commands  laid  on  the  Israelites  in  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy — "  When  the  Lord  shall  have  delivered  them  to 
thee,  thou  shalt  utterly  destroy  them — Thou  shalt  make  no 
league  with  them,  nor  shew  mercy  to  them  .  .  .  Destroy  their 
altars,  and  break  their  statues,  and  cut  down  their  groves,  and 
burn  their  graven  things  .  .  .  Thou  shalt  consume  all  the 
people,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  will  deliver  to  thee."f 

There  is  nothing  in  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremias  more 
touching  than  the  accounts  that  have  come  down  to  us  of  the 
sufferings,  at  this  time,  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  Mr.  Prender- 
gast,  who  has  made  the  subject  his  own,  and  who  must  con- 
tinue to  be  the  one  great  authority  on  all  that  relates  to  the 
Cromwellian  settlement  of  Ireland,  thus  sums  up  these  accounts, 
many  of  which  are  contained  in  official  documents :  "Ireland, 
in  the  language  of  Scripture,  now  lay  void  as  a  wilderness. 
Five-sixths  of  her  people  had  perished.  Women  and  children 
were  found  daily  perishing  in  ditches,  starved.  The  bodies  of 
many  wandering  orphans,  whose  fathers  had  embarked  for 
Spain,  and  whose  mothers  had  died  of  famine,  were  preyed  upon 
by  wolves.  In  the  years  1652  and  1653,  the  plague  and  famine 
had  swept  away  whole  countries,  that  a  man  might  travel 

*  The  forces  of  the  county  Roscommon,  to  deliver  up  their  arms  and  horses 
at  Roscommon,  those  of  the  county  Sligo,  at  Ballymote,  and  those  of  county 
Galway,  at  Loughrea. 

t  Deuteronomy  vii.  1. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  179 


twenty  or  thirty  miles  aud  not  see  a  living  creature.  Man, 
beast,  and  bird  were  all  dead,  or  had  quit  those  desolate  places. 
The  troopers  would  tell  stories  of  the  place  where  they  saw  a 
smoke,  it  was  so  rare  to  see  either  smoke  by  day,  or  fire  or 
candle  by  night."*  As  an  illustration  of  the  thoroughness 
with  which  the  work  of  extermination  was  accomplished  in  the 
towns,  take  the  statement  of  Colonel  Hewson,  Governor  of 
Dublin: — "Though  Dublin  hath  formerly  swarmed  with  Papists, 
I  know  none  now  there,  but  one  who  is  a  chirurgeon  and  a 
peaceable  man."  The  example  of  Dublin  was  followed  in  the 
provincial  towns,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  one  Papist, 
after  the  clearance,  could  be  found  in  Sligo. 

After   emptying  the    hive — to     use     the    metaphor   of  Mr. 
Prendergast — the  authorities  cast  about  for  a  new  swarm  ;    and 
failing  to  find,  nearer  home,  people  who  would  come  and  settle 
in  Sligo,  they  sent  invitations  across  the  Atlantic,  and,  enlarging 
on  the  natural  advantages  of  the  place,  prayed  the  sons  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  to  come  and  possess  this  commodious  seaport, 
with   considerable  scopes  of  the  neighbouring  rich  land.    To 
leave  them  ample  time  to  make  up  their  mind,  and  to  supply 
an  additional  inducement  for  their  return,  it  was  arranged  that 
about  two  thousand  acres   round  Sligo,  including   Coney  and 
Oyster  Islands,  should  be  given  to  them,  and  should  await  their 
acceptance  for  twelve  months  ;  but  tempting  as  these  offers  were, 
they  were  declined  by  the  New  Englanders  who,  no  doubt,  had 
land  enough  in  America,  and  besides,  like  other  people,  thought 
a  bird  in  the  hand  worth  two  in  the  bush.      The  reader  will  be 
glad  to  see  the  Order  in   Council  regarding  this  matter.     It  is 
as  follows  : — 
"Edmund  Leech  to  be  admitted  tenant  to  the  lands  about  Sligo. 

"  Upon  consideration  had  of  the  petition  and  proposalls  of 
Mr.  Edmund  Leech  and  others  for  the  plantation  of  the  towne 
of  Sligo,  and  some  lands  thereabouts,  with  families  out  of  New 
England  : — It  is  ordered  that  the  Commissioners  General  of  the 

*  Cromwelliau  Settlement  of  Ireland — By  John  P.  Prendergast,  Esq.,  p.  139. 


180  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Revenue  do  lett  unto  the  said  Edmund  Leech  the  lands  about 
Sligo,  commonly  called  the  Statute  Mile,  and  the  two  little 
islands,  viz. — Oyster  Island  and  Coney  Island  (containing  by 
estimation  two  thousand  acres  or  thereabouts)  for  the  use  and 
behoof  and  interest  of  such  English  families  as  shall  come  from 
New  England  in  America,  in  order  to  the  said  Transplantation  for 
the  tenure  of  one  year  from  May  next,  upon  such  terms  and  con- 
ditions as  they  shall  consider  reasonable  for  the  encouragement 
of  said  planters.  Dublin,  10th  April,  1655. — THOMAS  HERBERT, 
Clerk  to  ye  Council." 

By  the  Ordinance  for  the  Satisfaction  of  the  Adventurers 
for  Lands  in  Ireland,  and  the  Arrears  due  to  the  Soldiery, 
passed  on  the  26th  September,  1653,  and  declaring  the  war  at 
an  end,  Connaught  was  assigned  to  the  Irish,  who  were  to  be 
removed,  bag  and  baggage,  from  the  other  provinces.  At  first 
the  only  part  of  the  province  reserved  from  the  Irish  was  a 
belt  of  ground,  four  miles  wide,  beginning  at  Sligo,  and 
stretching  round  the  coast  to  Limerick,  this  border  being 
intended  for  soldiers  who  should  keep  the  transplanted  to  their 
quarters,  and  shut  out  relief  by  sea  ;  but  as  the  disbanded 
troops  of  the  Commonwealth,  though  well  provided  for  already, 
were  still  pressing  for  more  land,  they  received,  first,  three  miles 
•wide  of  the  coast  belt,  and,  next,  the  whole  county  Sligo,  with 
the  exception,  apparently,  of  Coolavin,  of  which,  being  in 
general  heath  and  rocks,  they  probably  would  not  take  a  present.* 

In  this  way  the  population  of  the  county  was  entirely 
changed ;  and  while  the  old  inhabitants — the  O'Connors,  the 
MacDonoghs,  some  of  the  O'Haras,  the  O'Garas,  the  O'Harts, 
the  O'Dowds — had  to  fly  across  the  sea  as  wild  geese — the  name 
given  to  those  who  took  service  in  Continental  armies — or 
were  shipped  to  Barbadoes  for  the  sugar  plantations,  or  were 

*  "The  baronies  of  Tirera  and  Carbury,  in  Sligo,  then  Tirerril,  Corran,  and 
Leyney  were  first  taken  away,  and  set  out  to  satisfy  the  disbanded.  And  the 
transplanters,  who  had  received  assignments  there  had  to  gather  up  their 
flocks  and  herds,  and  with  their  weary  and  heart-broken  wives  and  children,  to 
begin  their  wanderings  again."— Ibid,,  p,  188. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  181 


knocked  on  the  head  like  wild  beasts,  or  hid  themselves  in  the 
mountains  in  hope  of  a  change  in  the  times,  their  lands  and 
places  were  occupied  by  the  Cootes,  the  Coopers,  the  Kings,* 
the  Ormsbys,  the  Jones,  the  Griffiths,  the  Irwins,  &c.,  whose 
descendants  have  since  played  so  important  a  part  in  the  affairs 
of  the  district. 


*  Some  of  these  would  take  it  for  an  indignity  to  be  classed  with  the 
Omnium-gatherum  "  crew,"  to  borrow  Lord  Clare's  word — that  came  over  with 
Oliver  Cromwell,  or  followed  in  his  wake.  Even  while  joining  against  the 
old  Irish,  they  had  a  fierce  aversion  to  one  another,  the  Cromwellians,  pur 
sang  calling  the  others  "Tame  Tories,"  and  these  retorting  with  the  well- 
known  nickname  of  "  Roundheads."  A  very  interesting  contemporary  report 
of  the  "  State  of  Ireland  in  1652,"  given  in  Gilbert's  History  of  Affairs  in 
Ireland,  Part  III.,  pp.  354-5,  tells  that  "  the  officers  of  Coote's  armye  were 
for  the  most  part  natives  of  Connaught,  and  estated  formerly  in  that  province." 
On  this  account  they  would  not  allow  their  lands  to  be  disposed  of  by  public 
auction  like  other  lands  ;  and  when  the  Commissioners  of  the  Public  Revenue 
attempted  to  do  so,  Major  King,  son  and  heir  of  Sir  Robert  King,  stepped  up 
to  them  and  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I  doubt  it  will  pussle  you  to  find  a  tennant  for 
my  land,  for  if  this  be  a  hand  (holding  up  his  hand),  whoever  attempts  to  enter 
on  any  foot  that's  myne,  I'le  send  his  soul  to  Heaven  or  Hell,  and  you  shall 
know  that  having  fought  for  liberty,  and  gained  my  freedom,  I  scorne  to  be 
enslaved  by  any  mechannick  amongst  you  ;  and  so  farewell."  Major  Ormsby 
was  not  less  outspoken,  for  he  cried  out,  "Gentlemen,  if  this  be  the  justice 
we  may  expect  at  your  hands  before  you  be  well  seated  in  security,  I'll  not 
this  year  become  your  tenant,  nor  shall  my  sword  turn  plowshare." 

The  term  "  mechannick"  was  a  flout  at  the  low  origin  of  Cromwell's  officers 
and  soldiers  often  thrown  in  their  faces.  In  a  paper  on  the  "  State  of  Ireland 
in  1654,"  among  the  Rinuccini  MSS.,  and  published  in  the  2nd  volume  of 
Spicilegium  Ossoriense,  p.  132,  they  are  described  as  "  Nee  nobiles,  nee  honesto 
loconatos  vel  educates,  sed  sutores,  sartores,  mangones,  textores,  palliones,  lanios, 
lanarios,  coriarios,  tabernarios,  et  ejusmodi  sordidissimos  quosque  e  plebis 
Anglicaniee  fosce  opifices  et  artifices  eorumque  filios  a  Parlamento  et  Cromwello 
indutos  in  milites,  centuriones,  chiliarchos,  atque  alios  militise  duces  pedestres, 
equestresque,  deindeque  urbium  atque  oppidorum  gubernatores  aliosque  magis- 
tratus  etiam  civiles." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  CROMWELL! AN    SETTLEMENT  OF   SLIGO. 

THOUGH  ultimately  the  four  baronies  of  Carbury,  Tireraghr 
Corran,  and  Tirerrill,  were  given  up  to  the  usurpers,  it  was  at 
first  intended  to  assign  them  only  C  arbury  and  Tireragh  ;  and 
accordingly  a  commission  bearing  date  the  10th  day  of  January, 
1655,  issued  forth  from  the  Commonwealth  authorities  empower- 
ing Major  "William  Shepherd,  Major  John  King,  Captain  Robert 
Morgan,  Captain  Robert  Oliver,  Major  John  Folliott,  Captain 
Charles  Holcroft,  Captain  Jo.  Eyre,  Captain  John  Hollshaw, 
Edward  Crofton,  and  William  Webb,  Esq.,  or  any  three  of  them, 
11  to  sett  out  by  lott  the  number  of  sixty-three  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty  acres,  thirty  two  perches,  according  to  the 
measure  of  21  feet  to  the  perch,  and  160  perches  to  the  acre,  of 
the  lands  belonging  to  the  Commonwealth  within  the  baronies 
of  Tirera  and  Carbury  in  the  county  of  Sligo,  in  satisfaction  of 
thirty-one  thousand  five  hundred  sixty-four  pounds  two  shillings 
arrears  due  to  the  disbanded  officers  and  souldiers  and  other 
persons,  in  a  schedule  to  the  said  commission  annexed  men- 
tioned,* which  commission  is  the  same  in  tearms  and  instructions, 
mutatis  mutandis,  with  the  commission  issued  unto  the  county 
of  Corke,  for  setting  out  of  lands  to  the  disbanded  officers  there, 
which  bears  date  with  those  presents.  The  commission  by 
which  the  said  baronies  were  surveyed  bears  date  the  20th 
September  last.  The  barony  of  Carbery  is  the  first  that  is  to 
be  drawn  lotts  for,  the  lotts  to  be  published  by  the  above  named 
persons  7  days  before  the  lotts  are  drawn.  The  said  William 
Sheaperd,  John  King,  John  Folliott,  Robert  Morgan,  after  they 
have  taken  the  oath,  are  to  administer  the  same  to  the  rest."f 

*  The  writer  failed  after  a  diligent  search  to  find  this  schedule. 

tThe  Commonwealth  Book  marked  gr    These    Commonwealth  Books  are 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  183 


Before  the  introduction  of  the  Cromwellians  the  Protestant 
population  of  the  county  Sligo  was  only  one  hundred  and  forty 
souls,*  but  after  the  settlement  of  the  new  comers  through  the 
county  the  proportion  of  Protestants  to  Catholics  was  consider- 
able, 481  individuals  coming  in  under  the  above  commission. 
The  Cromwellians  have  been  often  styled  a  Garrison;  nor 
without  reason ;  for  any  one  that  thinks  a  little  on  how 
the  Tituladoes — leading  Cromwellian  landholders — were  placed 
through  the  county  Sligo,  must  see  that  the  dominant  idea,  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  placed  them,  was  to  secure  the  possession 
of  the  county,  and  to  keep  the  Irish  in  subjection.  With  this 
object,  the  Tituladoes  were  set  down  on  points  of  vantage,  near 
the  chief  roads  or  passes,  opposite  fords  and  bridges,  and  in  the 
county  town.  Richard  Coote  by  the  bridge  of  Collooney  ;  Cornet 
Cooper  at  Markrea ;  William  Mortimer  at  Lisconny ;  Charles 
Cartwright  at  Riverstown  ;  Ralph  Carter  at  Knockanarrow ; 
Morgan  Farrell  at  Carrickbanaghan  ;  Henry  Ellis  at  Geevagh ; 
Henry  Hughes  at  Ballinafad  ;  and  Edward  Nicholson  at  Brick- 
lieve  ;  they  commanded  the  fords  and  bridges  of  the  Ovvenmore 
and  the  Uncion,  and  the  chief  places  and  passes  of  Tirerrill. 

In  Tireragh,  with  several  Tituladoes  in  each  of  the  parishes — 
in  Kilmackhalgan  John  Bourke,  Robert  Hillas,  William 
Edwards  and  John  Irwin  ;  in  Castleconor  John  Nicholson  and 
Lewis  Wingfield;  in  Killglasse  Robert  Morgan,  Thomas  Wood, 
and  John  Moore  ;  in  Easky  William  Ormsby,  James  Ormsby, 
George  Ormsby,  and  William  Boswell ;  in  Skreen  Lewis  Jones 
and  Jeremy  Jones ;  in  Dromard  Henry  Craston  (Crofton),  John 
Irwin,  and  Edward  Irwin  ;  in  such  a  situation  hardly  a  Papist 
mouse  could  show  itself  without  being  observed  by  some  Crom- 
wellian eye,  and  immediately  "  squelched." 

Corran  was  similarly  guarded,  having  John  Duke,  Robert 
Duke,  John  Geale,  Donnell  Conallan,  John  Clifford,  Ed  ward  Hill, 

now  in  the  Public  Record  Office,  Dublin,  having  been  removed  there  some  time 
ago  from  the  Bermingham  Tower  of  Dublin  Castle. 

*  John  P.  Prendergast  in  the  Kilkenny  Archaeological  Journal,  Vol.  1.,  p.  398. 
Carte's  Ormond,  Vol.  1.,  p.  212. 


184  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Henry  Bierast,  and  John  Houlder,  in  Kilmorgan ;  Francis 
King,  and  William  Webb  in  Emlaghfad ;  Timothy  House  in 
Cloonoghill ;  Eichard  Meredith  in  Kilshalvey ;  and  Robert  King 
in  Tumour. 

In  Carbury  Humphrey  Booth,  Roland  Thomas,  and  Henry 
Crawford  held  Sligo  Town  ;  Thomas  Soden  and  Philip  Sulevan 
the  parish  of  Ahamlish  ;  Charles  Collis,  Roger  Parke,  Thomas 
Griffith,  Anthony  Ormsby,  and  Thomas  Osborne,  Drumcliff; 
and  William  Tod,  Henry  Nicholson,  Thomas  Ormsby,  and 
Manus  Lenehan,  the  parish  of  Calry,  then  called  Annagh. 

In  Leyney,  owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  Croftons  and  the  chief  of 
the  O'Haras  making  common  cause  with  the  usurpers,  there 
were  only  three  Tituladoes — Edmund  Wood,  living  at  Moineagh, 
Edmund  Pole  at  Magherenoir,and  Thomas  Rosevill  at  Tullyhugh. 

And  in  the  half  Barony  of  Coolavin,  most  of  which  was 
already  held  by  the  Kings  of  Boyle,  there  was  fixed  only  one 
Titulado,  Henry  Tifford  of  Kilfree. 

Cantoned  thus  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  county ; 
occupying  all  the  castles  and  strong  strategic  positions ;  placed 
within  easy  reach  of  each  other,  so  as  to  be  able,  in  case  of  need, 
to  afford  mutual  assistance;  with  arms  in  their  hands;  and 
with  all  the  forces  of  the  Government  at  their  back ;  the  Crom- 
wellians,  in  order  to  enjoy  and  improve  their  good  fortune,  had 
only  to  keep  down  the  natives,  a  service  for  which  they  felt  a 
peculiar  relish. 

Most  of  the  usurpers  came  over  with  Cromwell  in  1649,  and 
were  the  Cromwellians  pur  sang,  but  some  of  them  lived  in  the 
country  before  Oliver  landed,  as  the  Cootes  and  Coopers,  Kings 
and  Croftons,  and  bear  the  name  of  Cromwellians  only  inasmuch 
as  they  took  service  or  office  under  the  Protector.  There  must 
have  been  some  variety  of  character  in  individual  Cromwellians, 
as  there,  is  in  every  other  collection  of  human  beings,  but  the 
body  or  species,  at  least  of  Cromwell's  own  troopers,  had  certain 
well  marked  characteristics,  more  especially  contempt  of  the 
Irish  people  and  hatred  of  the  Catholic  religion,  peculiarities 
which  many  of  them  have  transmitted,  little  changed,  to  those 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


185 


that  came  after  them,  so  that  while  the  families  of  the  English 
who  came  over  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  James,  or  earlier, 
have  generally  fraternized  with  the  Irish  around  them,  some  of 
them  becoming  "  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  themselves,"  the 
descendants  of  the  Tituladoes  have  commonly  shown  themselves 
as  anti-Irish  and  anti-Catholic  as  their  forefathers  could  have 
been  at  the  time  they  first  settled  in  the  country.  Of  course 
they  cannot  now  act,  and,  to  do  them  justice,  show  no  inclination 
to  act,  towards  an  Irish  Catholic  after  the  fashion  of  two 
centuries  ago,  when  their  ancestors  might  horsewhip  him  or 
even  shoot  him  with  impunity ;  but  it  is  to  be  feared,  that 
some  of  them  still  regard  the  poor  Papist  as  little  better  than  a 
pariah  or  a  leper,  and  shun  him  accordingly. 

Long  before  Captain  Boycott's  name  furnished  a  new  designa- 
tion for  certain  unsocial  proceedings,  the  proceedings  them- 
selves were  invented  and  practised  by  the  descendants  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  and  officers  against  the  descendants  of 
the  old  Irish.  To  isolate,  to  exclude  from  benefits  open  to 
others,  to  set  the  mark  of  Cain  upon  the  brow,  and  to  treat  as 
an  alien  or  an  enemy ;  this  is  boycotting,  and  this  is  what  many 
of  the  Cromwellians  have  been  doing,  as  far  as  they  could,  in 
regard  to  the  Catholic  Irish,  and  what  some  of  them  continue, 
openly,  or  underhand,  still  to  do.  If  they  have  lands  to  let,  if 
they  have  employment  to  give,  if  they  have  patronage  to 
bestow,  if  they  have  distinctions  or  benefits  of  any  kind  to 
confer,  no  Catholic  has  any  business  to  apply  so  long  as  there 
are  any  of  their  own  co-.religionists  within  reach.  Proofs  of 
these  assertions  are  everywhere  under  the  eye  :  on  their  estates, 
where  every  farm  or  house  worth  having  is  in  the  possession  of 
non-Catholics ;  in  their  mansions,  where  all  the  situations, 
from  that  of  steward  to  that  of  scullery  maid,  are  similarly 
filled  ;  in  their  demesnes,  where  land  stewards,  foresters,  game 
keepers,  gate  keepers,  are  all  of  the  favoured  religion  ;  and  in 
public  offices,  such  as  those  of  Dispensary  doctors,  County 
cess  collectors,  Petty  Sessions  clerks,  and  others,  of  which  they 
have  the  patronage,  and  which  they  seldom  or  never  help 


186  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


a  Catholic  to  obtain,  except  in  the  absence  of  other  appli- 
cants. To  such  lengths  is  this  unsocial  exclusiveness  carried, 
that  some  landlords  and  agents  scruple  not  to  violate  Acts  of 
Parliament,  in  the  spirit,  if  not  in  the  letter,  in  order  to 
exclude  Catholics  from  the  benefits  which  the  laws  of  the  land 
have  opened  to  them.  To  give  an  instance :  the  Land  Act  of 
1881  gives  the  tenant  a  right  to  sell  his  interest  in  his  hold- 
ing, but  the  landlord  overrules  the  provision  of  the  law,  and 
practically  annuls  the  legal  right  of  the  tenant,  by  compelling 
him  to  pass  the  farm  to  some  Protestant  nominee,  as  might  be 
shown  by  several  recent  occurrences  through  the  county. 

In  truth  the  spirit  of  some  of  them  is  that  which  Adam 
Loftus  expresses  in  a  famous  letter,  where  he  writes  : — "  I  have 
indited  of  treason  all  the  noblemen,  gentlemen,  and  freeholders, 
in  the  counties  of  Dublin,  Meath,  Kildare  and  Wicklow,  which, 
I  hope,  will  be  a  great  advantage  to  the  Crown,  and  good  to 
this  poor  Kingdom,  when  these  rascals  shall  be  confounded 
and  honest  Protestants  planted  in  their  places." 

It  is  unpleasant  to  have  to  animadvert  on  such  doings,  but  to 
pass  them  over  in  silence  would  be  to  suppress  interesting  facts 
which  not  only  throw  important  light  on  the  actual  state  of  the 
country,  but  must  influence  its  political  and  social  condition  for 
some  time  to  come,  as  the  Irish  people  are  now  in  a  mood  to 
resent  these  proceedings  as  long  as  they  last,  and,  if  things  be 
carried  too  far,  to  engage,  by  way  of  retaliation,  in  a  struggle  a 
entrance,  in  which  either  they  or  the  landlords  must  go  to  the 
wall.  And  the  writer  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  noticing  the 
exceptional  hostility  of  Cromwellians  to  everything  Catholic 
and  Irish,  as  a  recent  writer,  who  in  religion,  political  princi- 
ples, and  feelings,  is  one  of  themselves,  thus  refers  to  the  sub- 
ject : — u  Colony  after  colony  of  Englishmen  have  come  over  to 
this  country  from  time  to  time,  but  we  have  had  no  body  of 
settlers  possessed  of  such  hostility  to  the  native  Irish  as  the 
Parliamentary  soldiery.  From  whatever  cause  this  may  have 
arisen,  it  has  existed  and  exists  still."* 

*  History  of  Bandon— By  George  Bennett,  Esq.,  B.L.,  pp.  189-190. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  187 


Most  of  the  Cromwellian  families  have  disappeared  from  the 
county,  and,  among  them,  those  that  had  the  name  of  being 
particularly  hostile  to  the  people  and  to  the  people's  religion. 
The  first  Lord  Collooney,  Richard  Coote,  who  is  said  in 
Gilbert's  Aphorismical  Discovery  of  Treasonable  Faction,  to 
have  burned  at  Trim  a  venerated  religious  relic  of  the  place, 
the  famous  statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  has  now  no  descen- 
dant in  the  county.*  Charles  Collis  of  Castlegal,  whom  local 
tradition  or  gossip  represents  as  having  a  gallows  at  Collisford, 
erroneously  called  Collinsford,  on  the  Drumcliff  river,  for  hanging 
the  political  suspects  of  the  neighbourhood,  is  no  longer  represen- 
ted in  the  place  by  any  one  of  his  name  or  lineage.f  The  Joneses 
of  Tireragh,  so  numerous  once  in  the  barony  that  you  met  them  at 
every  turn  of  the  road ;  so  powerful  that  they  could  do  in  the 
district  just  as  they  liked  ;  and  so  anti-Catholic  that  they  tried 
to  get  up  a  little  Popish  Plot  of  their  own  in  the  county  in 
1678,  when  Titus  Gates  and  his  coadjutors  were  operating  in 
England,  are  now  so  extinct,  that  a  Jones  is  as  much  a  rara 
avis  in  Tireragh,  as  the  eagle  which,  a  couple  of  hundred 
years  ago,  used  to  haunt  the  Ox  Mountains  there,  and  swoop 
down  occasionally  on  the  lands  and  barn  door  fowl  of  the 
neighbourhood.  It  is  much  the  same  in  the  other  baronies, 


*  "  Sir  Charles  Coote,  Blond-sucker,  having  reached  Trim,  and  the  weather 
being  very  cold,  his  son  Richard,  afterwards  Lord  Collooney,  cut  up  a  wooden 
statue  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  made  a  fire  of  it  for  his  father,  which  Sir 
Charles  never  enjoyed,  for  before  he  could  place  himself  before  it,  word  was 
brought  that  the  Irish  had  already  entered  the  town.  On  receiving  the  news 
he  called  his  men  to  arms,  and  sallied  forth  to  meet  the  enemy,  but  a  ball — 
either  of  a  friend  or  a  foe — for  it  is  not  known  of  which — put  an  end  to  his 
stormy  career.  The  body  was  conveyed  to  Dublin  amid  the  execrations  of 
the  Irish,  and  there  interred  with  the  epitaph,  "England's  honour,  Scotland's 
wonder,  Ireland's  terror,  here  lies  under." 

t  The  last  of  thenij  Farrel  Collis,  was  living  at  Knockroe,  near  Collooney ,, 
towards  the  end  of  the  last  century.  Doctor  Collis,  of  Stephen's  Green,  descends 
from  William  Collis,  elder  brother  of  Charles. — Information  acquired  in  Sir 
Bernard  Burke's  office. 

Charles  Collis  died  in  1685,  and  Robert,  his  fourth  son,  married  Jane, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Jones  of  Cargin.  Charles  Collis  resided  at  Magheramore, 
in  Drumcliff. 


188  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


so  that  of  the  sixty  Titulado  families,  quartered  on  the  county 
Sligo  under  the  Commonwealth,  there  remain  only  four  or  five, 
these  being,  it  is  to  be  believed,  of  the  better  or  milder  type  of 
the  species,  and  therefore  coming  down  to  us,  probably,  in 
accordance  with  Darwin's  law  of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

The  chief  work  the  Cromwellians  undertook  in  the  town  of 
Sligo  was  the  erection  of  a  new  fort.  The  old  castle  of  Sligo 
which  Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell  demolished  in  1595  (under  circum- 
stances described  graphically  by  the  Four  Masters  at  that  date, 
lest  it  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  English)  was  never 
repaired,  though  Elizabeth  desired  its  restoration ;  for,  in  articles 
propounded  through  Commissioners  by  the  Queen  to  O'Donnell, 
it  was  proposed  that  "  he  should  re-edify  the  castle ;"  but  he 
excused  himself  by  submitting  that,  what  he  did,  he  did  from 
necessity,  and  that,  as  the  castle  was  his  own,  the  loss  of  it  fell 
upon  himself,  addiDg,  however,  that  in  any  case,  he  was  not  able 
to  undertake  so  expensive  a  work*  One  of  the  duties  too  laid 
on  Essex,  when  in  Ireland,  was  to  erect  an  impregnable  castle  at 
Sligo  "  as  a  constant  defence  against  the  Ulstermen  ;"|  but  the 
result  of  the  battle  of  the  Curlews  prevented  the  execution 
of  this  project,  and  the  matter  was  not  resumed  from  that  time  to 
the  time  of  Cromwell. 

Seeing  then  there  was  no  strong  place  to  retire  to,  in  case  of 
an  attack,  which  there  was  still  ground  for  apprehending, 
the  Cromwellians  set  about  providing  such  a  fortress.  The  rising 
ground,  through  which  Quay  Street  now  passes,  was  the  site 
selected,  which  was  a  very  suitable  one,  as  it  commanded  the  town 
sufficiently,  and  adjoined  the  sea,  on  which  they  relied  for  suc- 
cour in  case  danger  arose.  It  is  supposed  that  the  town-hall 
stands  on  the  exact  spot  formerly  occupied  by  the  fort ;  but  this 
is  not  quite  so  ;  for  it  occupied  as  well  a  part  of  the  grounds  of 
the  college  on  the  west  side  of  the  street.  If  Cromwell's 
troopers  know  anything  now  of  what  passes  in  Sligo,  it  is  enough 


*  Carew  MSS.,  Vol.  1589-1605,  p.  162. 
t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1599. 


HISTORY  OF    SLTGO.  180 


to  make  them  gnash  their  teeth  in  the  grave,  to  think  that  those 
Popish  priests,  whom  they  thought  they  had  exterminated,  are 
now  their  successors  in  the  occupation  of  the  hill,  and  that  the 
Mass,  which  was  not  to  be  allowed  wherever  the  Parliament  of 
England  had  power,  is  now  practised  more  frequently  in  the  heart 
of  their  stronghold  than  in  any  other  spot  of  the  county.* 

The  plan  of  the  fort,  which  was  a  small  one,  was  a  square  with 
four  bulwarks  or  bastions,  one  at  each  angle.  The  bulwarks 
were  carried  to  their  full  height,  whatever  that  may  have  been, 
which  is  not  recorded,  but  as  they  were  built  hollow,  and  were 
not  filled  with  earth,  they  could  afford  little  accommodation  to 
either  men  or  cannon ;  but  the  curtain  walls  connecting  the 
bastions  were  only  about  10  feet  high  when  the  works  were 
stopped.  The  interior  was  left  in  a  still  more  unfinished  state 
than  the  outer  walls,  as  it  contained  nothing  but  the  foundations 
of  some  buildings  which  were  intended  to  serve  as  lodgings  for 
the  men,  and  stables  for  the  horses,  of  the  garrison.  Such  was  the 
state  in  which  its  builders  left  the  New  Fort  of  Sligo. 

Without  claiming  great  credit  for  the  discovery,  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  this  is  the  first  time  the  origin  of  the  fortress 
has  been  given  in  print.  Major  Wood  Martin,  finding  mention 
of  it  in  books,  and  fancying,  apparently,  that  it  dropped  down 
from  the  clouds,  ready  made,  like  the  Palladium,  talks  of  it  as 
"  old,"  as  "  old  and  crumbling,"  as  "  in  utter  ruin,"  though  he 
might  have  learned,  even  from  his  Harris,  that  it  was  "finished" 
for  the  first  time  only  in  1689,  and  from  other  quarters,  that  the 
body  of  the  work  was  built  only  about  thirty  years  previous. 

The  royalists  after  the  Restoration,  regarded  this  legacy  of  the 
Ironsides  as  the  proverbial  white  elephant,  and  were  at  a  loss  to 

*  "  If  by  liberty  of  conscience  you  mean  a  liberty  to  exercise  the  Mass,  I 
judge  it  best  to  use  plain  dealing,  and  let  you  know,  where  the  Parliament  of 
England  have  power,  that  will  not  be  allowed  of."— Letter  from  Oliver  Crom- 
well to  the  Governor  of  Ross. — Cromwell  in  Ireland  (page  186),  by  the  Reverend 
Denis  Murphy,  S.J.  With  Map,  Plans,  and  Illustrations. 

Whoever  would  acquire  a  full  and  correct  knowledge  of  Cromwell's  move- 
ments and  proceedings  in  Ireland  must  read  and  re-read  this  sober  and  scholarly 
volume. 


190  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


know  what  to  do  with  it.  From  a  letter  of  Lord  Kingston  to 
the  Duke  of  Ormonde,  it  would  appear  that  his  Grace  was  for 
demolishing  it,  and  it  was  probably  this  letter  of  Lord  Kingston 
that  saved  it  from  destruction.*  A  report  of  Sir  Albert 
Conyngham,  drawn  up  some  months  before  Kingston  wrote, 
contributed,  no  doubt,  to  this  result;  for,  being  appointed  by  the 
Master  of  the  Ordnance,  Sir  Robert  Byron,  to  visit  the  forts  of 
Sligo  and  Athlone,  and  to  report  upon  them,  he  suggested,  rather 
than  recommended,  that  this  fort  should  be  preserved  and  com- 
pleted, as  welJ  because  it  had  already  cost  a  large  sum,  as  also 
because  the  situation,  so  far  from  the  garrisons  of  Boyle  on  the 
one  side,  and  of  Londonderry  and  Enniskillen  on  the  other, 
needed  such  a  fortress.  This  report,  being  the  writer's  chief 
authority  for  what  is  here  stated,  and  being,  besides,  very  inter- 
esting in  itself,  is  given  below.f 

Probably  the  most  striking  immediate  effect  produced  in  Sligo 
by  the  Restoration  was  the  stoppage  of  the  works  at  the  New 

*  "I  should  not  desire  this  from  your  Grace,  if  I  durst  adventure  upon 
demolishing  either  of  the  two  forts  of  Belamoe  or  Sligo,  until  I  had  attended 
your  Grace  and  discoursed  more  particularly  on  them  than  'tis  possible  for  me 
to  do  by  letter,  and  perhaps  your  Grace  will  think  fit  to  advise  with  others 
before  you  admit  the  pulling  down  of  2  forts  which  (though  very  imperfect), 
cost,  at  least,  £4000  the  erecting.  Boyle,  June  15,  1666." 

t  The  first  part  of  report  regards  Athlone.  The  writer  next  goes  on  to  say : — 
"  This  day  I  reviewed  this  fort  very  diligently.  It  is  a  small  square  fort  erected 
by  the  Usurpers.  It  hath  foure  small  bulwarks  regular  enough.  The  bulwarks 
were  finished  to  their  full  height,  but  not  filled  up  with  earth,  soe  that  men 
cannot  stand  to  doe  any  service  in  them,  neither  can  any  gunns  be  placed  uppon 
them  untill  the  bulwarks  be  made  fitt  for  service.  As  for  the  4  curtains,  they 
were  never  brought  to  any  competent  height,  but  remain  unfinished,  so  that  it 
may  be  scaled  everywhere  uppon  the  curtains  with  ladders  no  longer  than  8  or 
10  feet. 

"  As  for  the  lodgings  within,  there  are  only  some  foundations,  and  all  that  is 
at  present  is  only  a  little  hutt  or  shade  intended  for  a  stable,  which  is  their 
guardhouse,  and  another  little  cabin  where  the  store  is,  which  is  all  undone 
with  wett,  which  hath  come  in  upon  it.  I  have  made  choice  of  places  most 
convenient  to  place  the  4  guns  which  are  appointed  to  be  mounted  here.  The 
situation  of  this  fort  is  uppon  a  river,  which  is  navigable  to  the  fort  and  no 
further,  for  under  the  fort  is  a  bridge  which  is  the  usual  thoroughfare  from 
Ulster  into  Connaught.  This  river  comes  out  of  a  logh,  which  borders  upon 
the  county  of  Leitrim,  and  is  not  foordable  but  in  summer,  neere  this  bridge,  so 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  191 


Fort ;  for,  in  other  respects,  things  were  allowed  to  go  on  much 
as  they  had  been  going,  under  the  recent  regime.  As  the  dis- 
banded officers  and  soldiers  held  a  firm  grip  of  their  possessions 
in  the  town  and  county,  and  as  they  had,  besides,  arms  in  their 
hands,  which  they  were  no  way  loth  to  use  upon  occasion ;  the 
public  authorities  of  that  day  entertained  no  desire  to  meddle 
in  any  way  with  them,  and,  the  more  especially,  as  those 
authorities  themselves  were  Cromwellian  in  all  their  antecedents 
and  sympathies.  Lord  Mountrath  (late  Sir  Charles  Coote),  and 
Lord  Orrery  (late  Lord  Broghill),  were  Lords  Justices  of  Ireland ; 
two  men  as  hostile  to  the  old  Catholics  of  the  country,  and  as 
friendly  to  the  new  inhabitants,  as  any  other  two  men  in  exist- 
ence ;  and  Mountrath's  brother,  Lord  Collooney,  whose  personal 
status  and  fortune  were  wound  up  with  the  continuance  of  the 
existing  state  of  things,  exercised,  under  the  central  government, 
the  chief  power  and  command  in  the  county  Sligo.  With  such 
"  friends  in  court "  the  Usurpers  of  Sligo  seemed  as  secure  in 
their  estates  and  lands  as  the  king  was  on  his  throne.  And  if 
the  issue  lay  exclusively  between  them  and  the  old  Irish,  they 
would  not  be  incommoded ;  but  claims  were  soon  put  forth  by 
others,  who  had  better  backing  at  court  than  even  the  Cootes 
and  their  confederates ;  and  these  claims  were  decided  in  a  way 
which  affected  seriously  the  interests  of  not  a  few  of  the  new- 
comers. 

that  Dudley  Costello  with  his  party  passed  at  this  foorde  neere  the  bridge 
about  a  fortnight  since  to  goe  into  the  county  Mayo  from  Leitrim.  The  situ- 
ation of  this  place  makes  it  very  considerable,  for  on  the  Ulster  side  there  are 
no  garrisons  nearer  to  it  than  Inniskillen  and  Londonderry,  which  are  very 
remote,  and  on  the  Connaught  side  none  nearer  that  the  Boile,  which  is  only  a 
horse  quarter,  and  hath  nothing  of  a  strength.  This  place  had  an  old  castle  in 
the  time  of  warre,  which  proved  of  great  consequence  to  any  party  that  had  it, 
for  whosoever  hath  Sligo  in  likelyhood  will  have  the  whole  country  under 
obedience.  If  it  should  be  thought  fitt  to  finish  this  fort,  there  is  a  good  quantity 
of  oake  timber  ready,  which  was  provided  for  it,  and  would  be  a  great  helpe  for 
to  build  lodgings  for  a  governor  and  garrison.  There  was  2500  employed  in  the 
work  already  by  the  Usurpers,  and  in  my  judgment  it  would  require  £1000 

yet  to  finish  and  complete  it  as  intended The  sending  of  thig 

is  committed  to  Capt.  Montgomerie,  Lieutenant  of  the  Ordnance  to  the  Master." 
"  Sligo,  Sept.  6,  1666." 


192  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


The  claimants  on  this  occasion  were  William  Earl  of  Strafford, 
and  Thomas  Radcliffe,  Esq.,   sons  and   heirs,   respectively,  of 
Thomas  Earl  of  Strafford,  and  Sir  George  Radcliffe.     We  learn 
from  the  Act  of  Explanation,  if  we  can  rely  entirely  upon  that 
authority,  that  Teige  O'Connor  Sligo,  in  or  about  the  year  1636, 
sold  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate,  extending,  even  then,  over  most  of 
the  county,  to  Thomas  Earl  of  Strafford  and  Sir  George  Radcliffe, 
through  Sir  Philip  Percival,  who  represented  the  purchasers  on 
the   occasion.     At   this   time   Strafford    had  the  country  in  a 
welter  hy  his  violent   efforts  to  establish  the  King's  title  to 
Connaught  ;    and   it   throws   new   light   on   that   statesman's 
character  to  learn  that,  while  thus  occupied,  he  could  find  time 
and  means  to  secure  a  good  slice  of  the  province  for  himself. 
As  he  and  Sir  George  got  Sir  Philip  Percival  to  act  for  them,  it 
would  appear  they  wanted  to  avoid  figuring  themselves  in  the 
transaction,  through  fear,  apparently,  that  their  personal  inter- 
vention would  bring  some  doubt  on  that  single-minded  devotion 
to  the  royal  interests,  which  each  of  them  professed  to  feel. 
The  whole  matter  must  have  been  managed  with  remarkable 
secrecy,  for  there  is  not  a  word  about  it  in  any  of  the  publications 
of  the  time  ;  neither  is  there  the  slightest  reference  to  it  in  the 
two  folio  volumes  of  Strafford's  Letters,  nor  in  the  Life  and 
Original  Correspondence  of  Sir  George  Radcliffe. 

If  other  authorities  are  silent  on  the  transaction,  the  Act  of 
Parliament  devotes  several  clauses  to  it,    one  of  which  runs 
thus  : — "  Whereas  Sir  Philip  Percival,  Knight,  deceased,  for  and 
on  behalf  of  Thomas,  late  Earl  of  Strafford,  and  Sir  George 
Radcliffe,  Knight,  deceased,  and  their  heirs,  in  or  about  the 
year  1636,  did  contract  and  agree  with  Teige  O'Connor  Sligoe,. 
uncle  and  heir  in  taile  to  Donogh  O'Connor  Sligoe,  then  lately 
deceased,  and  also  with  Edmond  MacJordan  and  Dorothy,  his 
wife,  sole  sister  and  heir-general  to  the  said  Donogh,  for  divers 
lordships,  manors,  castles,  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments, 
in  the  county  of  Sligoe,  being  formerly  the  estate  of  the  said 
Douogh  O'Connor  Sligoe  ....  be  it  therefore  enacted  that  all 
and  singular  the  said  lordships  formerly  belonging  to  the  said 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  193 

Donogh  O'Connor  Sligoe,  and  the  said  Teige  O'Connor  Sligoe, 
or  to  either  of  them,  shall  and  are  hereby  settled  upon  William 
Earl  of  Strafford,  son  and  heir  of  the  said  Thomas  Earl  of 
Strafford,  and  Thomas  Radcliffe,  Esq.,  son  and  heir  of  the  said 
Sir  George  Radcliffe;  and  that  they  be  forthwith  settled  in 
possession  by  the  Commissioners  appointed  to  the  execution  of 
this  Act." 

Only  that  the  Statute  Book  is  so  clear  and  express,  there 
would  be  ground  for  doubting  the  reality  of  the  sale  ;  for  one 
would  think,  if  Teige  O'Connor  Sligoe  sold  the  estate,  as  alleged, 
that  it  should  have  passed  soon  after  into  the  possession  of  the 
buyers  ;  whereas  it  had  not  changed  hands  so  late  as  1641,  as 
O'Connor  Sligo  is  given  in  the  Down  Survey  Book  of  Distribu- 
tions as  owner,  at  that  date,  of  the  lands  concerned  in  the  sale. 
And  it  must  look  somewhat  strange  and  suspicious  that  the 
purchasers  and  their  representatives  waited  for  Teige  O'Connor's 
death  before  trying  to  make  good  their  claim ;  though  the 
explanation  of  the  delay  may  probably  be  found  in  the  weighty 
and  engrossing  public  occupations  of  Strafford  and  Radcliffe  up  to 
1641,  and  the  troubles  and  changes  of  Government  from  that  time 
to  the  Restoration  in  1660.  Anyhow  more  light  is  needed  to 
satisfy  the  mind  on  the  particulars  of  the  negociations  between 
Teige  O'Connor  Sligo  and  Sir  Philip  Percival. 

As  it  was,  neither  the  O'Connors  nor  the  Cromwellians 
relinquished  their  pretensions  without  a  struggle ;  for  we  learn 
from  the  Act  of  Explanation,  that  William  Earl  of  Strafford, 
Thomas  Radcliffe,  Esq.,  and  Sir  John  Percival,  had  to  institute 
a  suit  for  possession  before  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  Council  of 
Ireland  against  Martin  O'Connor,  grandson  and  heir  of  Teige 
O'Connor  Sligoe,  deceased,  Richard  Lord  Baron  of  Collooney, 
and  others :  Lord  Coliooney  and  the  "  others,"  representing  the 
Usurpers,  settled  on  the  estate  by  the  Commonwealth.  The 
decision  was  in  favour  of  the  plaintiffs,  and,  in  conformity  with 
it,  the  estate  was  settled  on  William  Earl  of  Strafford,  and 
Thomas  Radcliffe. 

The  O'Connors  and   Cromwellians  being   thus  disposed   of, 

VOL.  I.  N 


194  HISTOEY  OF  SLIGO. 


and  the  way  being  now  quite  clear,  Charles  IT.  made  a  formal 
grant  of  the  lands  in  question  to  William  Earl  of  Strafford,  and 
Thomas  Radcliffe,  Esq.,  who  had  procured  a  certificate  of  their 
claims  from  the  Commissioners  appointed  for  executing  the  Acts 
of  Settlement  and  Explanation,   namely,  Sir  Edward  Smith, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  Sir  Edward  Denny,  Baronet, 
Sir  Allen  Broderick,  Sir  Winston  Churchill,  and  Edward  Cooke, 
Esq.,  so  that  now  the  grantees  held  the  estate  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, by  royal  grant,  and,  supposing  their  own  story  true,  by 
lawful  purchase.     It  was  a  matter  of  course  that   the  King 
should  be  glad  to  help  these  two  men,  as  their  fathers  had 
laboured  and  suffered  so  much  for  the  royal  cause.     Strafford 
lost  his  head  for  Charles  I. ;  and  Kadcliffe,  after  narrowly  escap- 
ing the  same  fate,  spent  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  in  the 
service,  on   the  Continent,   of  Charles'  two  sons — afterwards 
Charles  II.  and  James  II. — and  devoted  himself  so  zealously, 
even  in  sickness,  to  that  service,  that  his  biographer  writes  of 
him,  "  With  one  side  torpid  and  half  dead,  this  faithful  exile 
continued  to  the  last  actively  employed  in  providing  for  his 
master's  present  wants,  and  promoting  his  Restoration."  *     Sir 
George  died  in  1657,  and  the  straits  to  which  he  was  reduced 
before  death  may  be  seen  in  those  touching  lines,  written  by 
him  in  1656,  "I  am  now  labouring  to  get  credit  for  a  suit  of 
clothes,  which  is  more  than  I  have  made  these  five  years,  and 
now  my  old  frippery  grows  thin."  f 

To  understand  how  Strafford  and  Sir  George  came  to  be  so 
united  in  friendship,  we  must  recollect  that  they  were  family 
connections,  Badcliffe  being  married  to  the  Earl  of  Stratford's 
cousin,  Anne  Trappes,  daughter  of  Sir  Francis  Trappes ;  and 
the  union  was  probably  strengthened  by  their  pursuing  the 
same  devious  course  in  politics ;  for  both  began  public  life  as 
"  advanced  "  patriots,  but  soon  turning  the  back  on  the  popular 

*  The  Life  and  Original  Correspondence  of  Sir  George  Radcliffe,  Knight, 
LL.D. ;  the  Friend  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  By  Thomas  Dunham  Whitaker, 
LL.D.,  F.S.A.,  p.  288. 

tldem. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  195 


party,  ended  as  devoted  'courtiers.  When  Strafford  came  to 
Ireland  in  1633,  as  Lord  Lieutenant,  resolved  to  bend  every- 
body and  everything  to  the  royal  will,  he  felt  the  need  of  able 
and  trusted  co-operators,  and  induced  the  King  to  appoint  Sir 
George  Kadcliffe  Chief  Secretary,  and  Christopher  Wandesford, 
another  relation,  Master  of  the  Rolls.  While  Strafford  was  the 
head  that  devised  the  bold  measures  of  the  Government,  these 
two  officials  were  the  hands  that  carried  the  measures  into  effect. 
His  private  affairs,  too,  Strafford  left,  all  through  life,  to  their 
management ;  and  at  his  death  he  made  them  the  executors  of 
his  will,  and  the  guardians  of  his  son ;  the  words  of  the  will 
being,  "  I  make  my  beloved  friends,  Christopher  Wandesford 
and  Sir  George  Radcliffe,  Knight,  mine  Executors  of  this  will 
....  I  commend  the  care  of  the  education  and  government  of 
my  son  to  my  said  Executors." 

The  sons  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  and  Chief  Secretary  were 
very  different  men  from  their  fathers.  While  Stafford's  genius 
towered  above  that  of  all  his  contemporaries,  and  Sir  George 
Radcliffe  was  little,  if  at  all,  inferior,  to  the  chief  statesmen 
around  him,  Lord  William  Strafford  and  Thomas  Radcliffe  were 
as  commonplace  persons  as  could  be  easily  found  in  any  class, 
and  had  little  to  boast  of,  except  that  they  were  the  sons  of  their 
distinguished  fathers,  and  the  inheritors  of  large  estates  and 
possessions.  This  is  more  especially  true  of  Radcliffe,  who  was 
so  good-for-nothing  and  weak-minded  that  he  put  himself  very 
much  in  the  hands  of  a  cunning  servant  named  Wilson,  to  whom 
he  even  bequeathed  by  will  the  half  of  the  Sligo  estate,  leaving 
the  other  half  to  an  aunt,  Margaret  Trappes.*  It  may  be 
mentioned,  in  passing,  that  Mary  Trappes,  sister  of  Margaret, 
was  married  to  Charles  Townly  of  Townly  Hall,  Lancashire,  a 
name  not  unknown  in  connexion  with  the  modern  politics  of  Sligo. 

The  death  of  Thomas  Radcliffe  in  1679  led  to  radical  changes 
in  the  conditions  of  holding  the  estate.  Up  to  that  event  the 
property  was  held  in  common  by  Lord  Strafford  and  Radcliffe, 

*  It  throws  light  on  the  character  of  monuments  and  epitaphs  that,  while  the 
eminent  Sir  George  Radcliffe  has  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  to  perpetuate 


196  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


and  they  received  each  an  equal  share  of  the  rents  and  revenues 
of  the  whole  ;  but  now  the  estate  was  divided  so  as  to  give  a 
separate  share  to  each  of  the  present  owners,  Lord  William 
Strafford,  Joshua  Wilson,  and  John  Leslie,  Esq.,  D.D.,  to  the 
last  of  whom  Margaret  Trappes  had  sold  her  share  and  interest. 
The  division  or  partition  was  effected  by  a  tripartite  deed  made 
on  the  21st  July,  1687,  between  the  Right  Honourable  William 
Earl  of  Strafford,  of  the  first  part;  the  Rev.  John  Leslie,  Doctor 
of  Divinity,  of  the  second  part ;  and  Joshua  Wilson,  of  the  city 

his  memory,  his  worthless  son  is  honoured  to  this  day  with  a  monument  in  the 
parish  church  of  Thornhill,  England,  to  which  his  remains  were  removed  from 
Dublin  for  interment,  and  with  the  following  eulogistic  epitaph  : — 

"M.S. 

Thorn  se  Eadcliffe,  Arm. 
Qui  ex  illustri  Radcliviorum  familia  ortus, 

Georgii  Militis  et  Annoe  Traps  films, 
Candida  meute  et  felicissima  iudole  imbutus, 

Variis  artibus  et  scientiis  ornatus, 

Et  mirabili  morum  suavitate  prseditus, 

Postquam  per  plurimos  annos  exul, 

Exulis  Regis  sui  causa, 
Regiones  exteras  peragraverat ; 
Tandem  post  reducem  Regem 

In  Hiberniam  se  contulit ; 

Regique  ibidem  a  sacris  conciliis  inserviens, 

Secundis  rebus  non  magis  elatus 

Quam  antehac  adversis  depressus 

Pietate,  temperantia,  probitate,  caeterisque  virtutibus 

Adeo  inclaruit, 
Ut  non  eget  fucosis  laudibus, 

Nee  hoc  monumento, 

Ad  famam  ejus  perpetuandam  : 

Memoria  quippe  justi  manet  in  reternum, 

XIII.  Kal.  Julii  MDCXXIII.  in  agro  Eboracensi  natus, 

III.  Kal.  Nov.  MDCLXXIX.  Dublinii  denatus, 

Unica  families  suse  spes  improles  et  ccelebs 

Hie  et  in  mille  amicorum  pectoribus 

Reconditus  jacet ; 
Cui  Margareta  Traps  mater t era  et  Joshua  Wilson  domesticus 

Hasredes  ex  asse  instituti, 

Hoc  qualecunque  gratitudinis 

Quam  memorise  monumentum, 

Suis  sumptibus  erigi  curarunt." 


HISTORY   OF  SLTGO.  197 


of  Dublin,  gentleman,  of  the  third  part.  As  Lord  Strafford  was 
entitled  to  half  of  the  whole  estate,  and  Dr.  Leslie  and  Joshua 
Wilson  to  a  fourth  part  each,  the  indenture,  after  reciting  all  the 
lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  to  be  disposed  of — the 
manor,  town,  and  lands  of  Sligo ;  various  scopes  of  land  in 
Carbury,  Tirerrill,  Corran,  Leyney,  Tireragh,  and  Coolavin;  the 
rectories  of  Ahamlish,  Aughriss,  Dromard,  Templeboy,  and 
Kilmacshalgan ;  yearly  rents  and  chiefries  coming  and  payable 
out  of  several  quarters  of  land  lying,  up  and  down,  through  the 
county ;  the  abbey,  abbey  quarter,  and  abbey  lands  of  Sligo,  as 
held  by  Lord  Taaffe  on  the  27th  June,  1638;  the  yearly  fairs 
and  weekly  markets  of  Sligo,  and  the  tolls,  profits  and  customs 
thereof — proceeds  thus  : — "And  whereas  the  said  William,  Earl 
of  Strafford,  the  said  Doctor  John  Leslie,  and  Joshua  Wilson, 
have  come  by  agreement  to  a  full  and  perfect  partition  and 
division  of  the  said  lands  into  two  moieties,  the  one  moiety 
thereof  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  said  William  Earl  of  Strafford  and 
his  heirs,  and  the  other  moiety  thereof  to  be  enjoyed  by  the 
said  Doctor  John  Leslie,  Joshua  Wilson,  and  their  respective 
heirs.  And  whereas  the  said  Doctor  John  Leslie  and  Joshua 
Wilson  have  also,  by  agreement,  come  to  a  full  and  perfect 
partition  and  division  of  their  moieties  of  the  said  lands,  the  one 
half  of  the  said  moiety,  that  is  to  say,  one-fourth  part  of  the 
said  whole  lands  and  premises  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  said  Doctor 
John  Leslie  and  his  heirs,  and  the  other  half  of  the  said  moiety, 
that  is  to  say,  one-fourth  part  of  the  said  whole  lands  and 
premises,  to  be  enjoyed  by  the  said  Joshua  Wilson  and  his 
heirs,  by  which  said  partition  and  agreement  all  the  lands, 
tenements,  and  hereditaments  mentioned  in  the  first  schedule 
hereunto  annexed,  are  come  and  fallen  to  the  share  of  said 
William  Earl  of  StrafFord,  to  be  held  and  enjoyed  by  him  and 
his  heirs,  as  his  and  their  full  moiety  of  all  and  singular  the 
premises,  and  by  the  said  partition  and  agreement  all  the  lands, 
tenements,  and  hereditaments  mentioned  in  the  second  schedule 
hereunto  annexed,  are  come  and  fallen  to  the  said  Doctor  John 
Leslie,  to  be  held  by  him  and  his  heirs,  as  his  and  their  fall 


198  HISTOKY   OF   SLIGO. 


fourth  part  of  all  and  singular  the  premises  ;  and  by  the  said 
partition  and  agreement  all  the  lands,  tenements,  and  heredita- 
ments, in  the  third  schedule  hereunto  annexed  are  come  and 
fallen  to  the  said  Joshua  Wilson  to  be  held  and  enjoyed  by  him 
and  his  heirs  as  his  and  their  full  fourth  part  of  all  and  singular 
the  premises.  Now  this  indenture  witnesseth,  that  it  is  hereby 
concluded  and  agreed  on  by  and  between  the  said  parties  .  .  . 
that  the  said  partition  and  division  made  of  the  said  landsr 
tenements,  and  hereditaments  and  premises,  shall  for  ever 
hereafter  stand  good,  firm,  and  effectual,  and  shall  be  binding 
to  all  the  said  parties,  their  heirs  and  assigns  respectively." 

The  indenture  next  arranges  for  certain  money  payments  by 
the  parties  between  themselves,  so  as  to  conform  still  better  the 
shares  to  the  respective  claims,  it  being  impossible  to  distribute 
the  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  so  nicely  as  to  meet 
the  exact  requirements  of  the  case.  Any  inequality  found  to 
exist  was  adjusted  by  him,  who  had  more  than  his  right,  making 
up  for  it  in  money  to  him  who  had  less. 

A  monopoly  in  milling  was  left  and  secured  to  Lord  StrafTord  : 
— "And  the  said  John  Leslie  and  Joshua  Wilson,  severally  and 
respectively  for  them  and  their  several  heirs  and  assigns  .  .  . 
do  hereby  covenant  and  grant  to  and  with  the  said  William 
Earl  of  Strafford,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  that  no  mills  of  any  kind 
shall  hereafter  at  any  time  be  built  on  the  north  or  south  side 
of  River  Garvagh,  and  that  all  persons  whatever  on  their 
respective  lands  in  the  parishes  of  St.  John's,  Kilmacowen,  and 
Killaspickbrone,  called  Cullurin,  and  in  the  town  of  Sligo,  and 
the  quarter  of  Rath,  shall  be  obliged  to  grind  all  their  corn  at 
Sligo  mills,  that  are  now  built,  or  shall  hereafter  be  built,  and 
also  to  tuck  all  their  cloth  at  such  tuck  mill  or  mills  as  shall  here- 
after be  built  by  the  said  William  Earl  of  StrafTord,  his  heirs, 
tenant  or  tenants,  or  assigns,  except  those  who  are  already 
obliged  to  the  mills  of  Rathbroghan,  they  having  their  corn  and 
cloath  as  well  ground  and  tucked  at  the  said  mills,  and  at  as 
reasonable  rates  as  in  any  other  mills  near  adjacent  thereunto, 
provided  the  said  mill  or  mills  be  in  repair,  and  do  not  want 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  199 


water,  and  that  each  person  have  his  turn  as  is  usually  accus- 
tomed." 

And,  in  conclusion,  the  contracting  parties  thus  provide  for 
any  omissions  which  may  be  found  in  the  indenture  : — "  And 
it  is  lastly  agreed  by  and  between  the  said  parties  that  all  lands, 
tenements,  hereditaments,  houses,  gardens,  waste  plots,  profits, 
chiefries,  franchises,  privileges,  and  advantages  belonging  to 
the  said  William  Earl  of  Strafford,  Doctor  John  Leslie,  and 
Joshua  Wilson,  as  tenants  in  common,  that  are  omitted  out  of 
the  schedules  hereunto  annexed,  and  whereof  no  partition  or 
division  is  hereby  made  between  the  said  parties,  shall  be  still 
held  and  enjoyed  by  them  as  tenants  in  common,  according  to 
their  several  and  respective  interests  therein,  that  is  to  say, 
one  moiety  thereof  by  William  Earl  of  Strafford,  his  heirs  and 
assigns,  and  one-fourth  part  thereof  by  the  said  John  Leslie, 
his  heirs  and  assigns,  until  a  further  partition  and  division  shall 
be  made  of  all  such  omitted  parcels  between  the  said  parties. 
In  witness  thereof  the  parties  to  these  presents  interchangeably 
have  set  their  hands  and  seals  the  day  and  year  first  above 
written."— (21st  July,  3°  Jacobi  II.) 

To  this  deed  are  annexed  three  schedules,  one  for  each  of  the 
portions  unto  which  the  estate  was  divided ;  and  as  these 
schedules  record  all  the  denominations  of  lands  then  on  the 
estate,  the  extent  in  acres,  roods,  and  perches,  of  these  denomi- 
nations, and  the  names  of  the  persons  possessing  them,  they 
throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  state  of  the  county,  at  the  period 
to  which  they  refer,  and  will  therefore,  if  possible,  be  given  in 
the  Appendix. 

To  complete  what  has  been  said  regarding  the  connexion  of 
theStraffords  with  Sligo,it  will  be  convenient  to  state  here  that 
upon  the  death  of  Earl  William,  his  estate  in  Sligo  passed  by 
sale  out  of  the  family.  As  in  the  partition  we  have  been  con- 
sidering, so  also  in  the  transaction  under  consideration  the 
transfer  was  effected  by  a  tripartite  indenture,  the  parties  to 
the  present  deed  being  three  trustees  under  the  Earl's  will, 
namely,  Doctor  William  Spenser,  Rector  of  Thurnscoe,  in 


200  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


England,  James  Grenelagb,  of  "Wentworth  Woodhouse,  and 
Abraham  Nixon,  of  Coolattin,  in  county  Wicklow,  of  the  first 
part ;  the  Honourable  Thomas  Wentworth  alias  Watson,  of  the 
second  part ;  and  Benjamin  Burton,  of  the  city  of  Dublin, 
merchant,  of  the  third  part.  The  will  of  the  late  Earl,  under 
which  the  sale  was  effected,  is  dated  9th  September,  1695,  and 
the  deed  of  sale  itself  the  24th  day  of  August,  1697.  The  deed 
was  confirmed  by  a  decree  of  the  courts  issued  10th  February, 
1697,*  and  running  thus : — "  That  the  agreement  made  between 
the  plaintiff  Wentworth,  and  the  plaintiff  Burton,  for  sale  of 
the  Manor  of  Sligoe,  in  the  county  Sligoe,  part  of  the  estate  of 
the  late  Earl  of  Strafford  is  according  to  the  true  intent  and 
meaning  of  the  said  Earl's  will,  and  that  the  deed  perfected  by 
the  defendants,  Spenser,  &c.,  trustees  under  said  will,  pursuant 
to  such  agreement,  be  confirmed  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  It 
is  likewise  ordered  that  the  sum  of  £10,780,  which  was  paid  by 
the  plaintiff  Burton,  upon  the  perfection  of  said  deed,  be  applied 
towards  the  discharge  of  the  legacies  bequeathed  by  the  said 
Earl's  will,  and  the  incumbrances  on  said  estate." 

The  Thomas  Wentworth,  or  Watson,1  mentioned  in  these 
documents,  was  the  son  of  Lady  Anne  Wentworth,  eldest 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  She  married  Edward 
Watson,  Lord  Buckingham,  and,  in  this  way,  the  unsettled 
Strafford  estates  in  England  and  Ireland  passed,  first,  to  the 
Earls  of  Rockingham,  and  next,  to  the  Earls  Fitzwilliam,  to 
whom  they  belong  at  present. 

Benjamin  Burton,  the  purchaser  of  the  property,  was  the 
ihird  son  of  Samuel  Burton,  high  sheriff  of  Clare,  and 
grandson  of  Thomas  Burton,  who,  with  a  brother,  Francis, 
settled  in  Ireland  in  1610,  at  Buncraggy,  in  the  county 


*  Repertory  to  Decrees  in  Record  Office,  Dublin : — 

The  following  receipt  was  given  for  the  money  paid,  "Received  from 
Benjamin  Burton,  merchant,  the  sum  of  £10,780  sterling,  being  the  full  con- 
sideration for  the  within-mentioned  purchase.  In  witness  whereof  we  have 
hereunto  put  our  hands  this  24th  day  of  August,  1697. 

"WILLIAM  SPENCER,  JAMES  GRENELAGH,  ABRAHAM  NIXON." 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  201 


of  Clare.  Benjamin,  being  the  youngest  son  of  Samuel, 
devoted  himself  to  commercial  pursuits,  amassed  a  large 
fortune  as  merchant  and  banker  in  Dublin,  became  Lord 
Mayor  of  the  city,  and  served  for  several  years  as  its  represen- 
tative in  Parliament.  His  family  is  now  represented  by  the 
Burtons  of  Burton  Hall,  Carlow,  the  Burtons  of  Carrigaholt 
Castle,  county  Clare,  and  the  noble  house  of  Conyngham, 
Mount  Charles,  county  Donegal.  The  estate  he  bought  from 
the  representatives  of  Lord  Strafford,  and,  particular^,  the 
Sligo- town  portion  of  it,  is  still  known  and  spoken  of  as  the 
"  Burton  Property." 

The  writer,  not  satisfied  with  the  references  to  the  transfer 
of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate,  which  are  contained  in  the  Acts  of 
Settlement  and  Explanation,  set  himself  to  search  for  further 
information,  and,  after  searching  in  vain,  in  the  Public  Record 
Office,  Trinity  College,  and  the  Dublin  Library,  had  the  good 
fortune  to  fall  in  at  last  with  documents  which  throw  great 
light  on  the  matter  in  hand.  These  documents  he  found,  with 
a  vast  number  of  others,  in  seven  folio  volumes,  which  are 
concerned  with  the  Acts  of  Settlement  and  Explanation,  and 
which  still  remain  in  the  Birmingham  Tower  of  Dublin  Castle, 
though  nearly  all  the  other  ancient  muniments  of  that  famous 
depository  have  been  transferred  within  the  last  few  years  to 
the  Public  Record  Office  in  the  Four  Courts.  The  papers  that 
regard  the  Sligo  property  are  voluminous,  extending  over  more 
than  a  score  of  closely  written  folio  pages,  so  that  a  summary 
of  their  contents  is  all  that  can  be  given  here. 

Wheresoever  the  body  shall  be,  there  shall  the  eagles  also  be 
gathered  together,  says  the  Gospel,  and  the  fallen  inheritance  of 
the  O'Connors  Sligo  attracted  various  birds  of  prey  from  all  sides. 
First. — The  so  called  "  Forty-nine  officers  "  prayed  the  king 
not  to  grant  away  the  estate   till  they  were  allowed  an 
opportunity  of  stating  their  own  claims  upon  it. 
Second. — Lord  Collooney,  Sir  Francis  Gore,  and  Erasmus 
Smith,  on  behalf  of  themselves,  and  of  "  100  Protestant 
families  of  Adventurers  and  Souldiers,"  that  got  posses- 


202  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


sion  of  it  from  the  Commonwealth  authorities  in  1659, 
petitioned  the  King  not  to  accede  to  the  application  of 
Lord    William    Strafford   and   Thomas   Radcliffe   for  a 
clause  in  the  Act  of  Settlement  to  ratify  the  purchase 
or  pretended  purchase  of  their  fathers. 
Third. — The    Countess    of    Mountrath   and   her  children 
appeared  by  attorney,  and  alleged  rights  derived  from  the 
late  Earl  of  Mountrath. 
Fourth. — Patrick  French,  as  a  mortgagee,  petitioned  the 

King  to  safeguard  his  rights. 

These  petitions  gave  rise  to  counter  petitions,  and  the  con- 
flict continued  while  the  Bills  of  Settlement  and  Explanation 
were  in  preparation. 

The  King  referred  all  the  documents  to  the  Solicitor- General, 
who  drew  up  a  long  and  detailed  Report  of  the  whole  case,  and 
from  this  document  it  appears :  first,  that  Donogh  O'Connor, 
at  his  death  in  1634  without  issue,  left  the  property  encum- 
bered with  the  jointures  of  Lady  Sarah  McDonnell,  Lady 
Desmond,  and  Lady  Cressy,  and  with  several  mortgages ;  second, 
that  Teige  O'Connor,  the  uncle  and  heir  of  Donogh,  sold  the 
estate  to  Sir  Philip  Perceval  in  trust  for  Lord  Thomas  Strafford 
and  Sir  George  Radcliffe,  who  obtained  actual  possession  of 
some  of  it;  third,  that,  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  sale, 
the  purchasers  should  pay  off  all  the  incumbrances,  and  that 
Teige  should  receive  back  3,000  acres  free  and  unincumbered  -t 
fourth,  that  the  case  gave  rise  to  litigation  before  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  and  Privy  Council,  which  lasted  for  three  days; 
and  fifth,  that  Teige  O'Connor,  the  seller,  died  before  1641, 
and  that  Teige  his  son,  owing  to  the  part  he  took  in  the  insur- 
rection of  that  year,  forfeited  all  claim  to  the  3,000  acres, 
which,  in  effect,  were  divided  between  Sir  Francis  Gore  and 
Captain  Robert  Parke,  according  to  the  proportions  of  the 
adjoining  lands  that  each  already  held. 

Martin  O'Connor  is  mentioned  in  these  proceedings  as  "a 
petitioner,"  but  it  would  appear  that  the  name  was  used  without 
his  consent,  for  he  did  not  appear  or  "  put  in  an  answer  ;'r 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  203 


though  "  the  heirs  and  assigns  "  of  Teige  O'Connor  were  ordered 
by  the  Council  on  the  6th  October,  1662,  to  make  answer. 
When  he  found  his  claims  prejudged,  owing  to  the  rebellion 
imputed  to  his  father  and  the  consequent  forfeiture,  he  declined 
to  interfere,  feeling  that  the  proceedings,  as  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  were  only  a  farce.  It  is  a  pity  there  is  no  record  of 
his  view  of  the  case ;  for,  seeing  the  iniquity  of  the  times,  one 
cannot  help  thinking  that  the  unfortunate  O'Connors  Sligo 
were  swindled  out  of  their  immense  estates.' 

The  outcome  of  these  transactions  was  the  insertion  of  one 
clause  in  the  Act  of  Settlement,  and  of  six  clauses  in  the  Act  of 
Explanation,  bearing  upon  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate.  The 
clause  in  Act  of  Settlement  (ccxxiii.)  enacts  that  the  lands  in 
Sligo,  purchased  in  trust  for  Lord  Thomas  Strafford  and  Sir 
George  Radcliffe,  shall  be  vested  in  the  King,  until  the  Chief 
Governor  and  Council  adjudge  to  whom  they  belong,  upon  hear- 
ing of  the  persons  concerned,  and  that  the  judgment  shall  have 
the  force  of  law. 

The  clauses  of  the  Act  of  Explanation,  which  refer  to  this 
matter,  are  those  marked  ccix.,  ccx.,  ccxi.,  ccxii.,  ccxiii.,  ccxiv. 
The  clause  ccix.  recites  that  Sir  Philip  Perceval,  on  behalf  of  Lord 
Strafford  and  Sir  George  Radcliffe,  purchased  lands  about  the 
year  1636,  from  Teige  O'Connor  Sligo. 

Clause  ccx.  provides,  that  all  depositions  taken  in  a  case 
lately  before  the  Lord  Deputy  and  Council  may  be  made 
use  of  as  proofs  in  this  matter. 

Clause  ccxi.  orders  Strafford  and  Radcliffe  to  pay  within 
six  months  the  money  due  to  incumbrancers  by  Teige 
O'Connor. 

Clause  ccxii.  enacts,  that  the  Adventurers  and  the  Commis- 
sioned Officers  who  served  the  King  in  Ireland  before  the 
5th  June,  1649,  now  in  possession  and  to  be  removed, 
shall  have  so  much  of  other  forfeited  lands  set  out  to  them 
as  may  be  sufficient  to  reprise  and  satisfy  them  for  two 
full  third  parts  of  the  lands  whence  they  are  to  be 
removed. 


204  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


Clause  ccxiii.  provides,  that  the  lands  of  Bradcullen  (Castle- 
town)  and  other  lands,  which  were  to  be  settled  on  Teige 
O'Connor,  shall  not  be  settled  on  Lord  Strafford  and 
Thomas  Radcliffe,  but  shall  be  disposed  of  to  Sir  F.  Gore 
and  Captain  Robt.  Parke  according  to  the  several  propor- 
tions which  they  possess. 

Clause  ccxiv.  runs  thus :    Whereas,  Sir  Philip  Perceval  and 
Sir  George  Radcliffe,  or  one  of  them,  did,  in  like  manner, 
purchase  some  other  parcels  of  lands,  tenements,   and 
hereditaments  in  the  said  county  Sligo  from  several  other 
persons,  Lord  William  Strafford  and  Thomas  Radcliffe 
shall  be  restored  to  all  the  rights  in  law  and  equity  of 
their  fathers  to  the  said  lands,  tenements,  and  heredita- 
ments— the    adventurers,    soldiers,    and    commissioned 
officers  now  in  possession  to  be  reprised. 
These  enactments,  and  the  consequent  transfer  of  the  estate, 
caused  several  adventurers,  soldiers,  and  commissioned  officers, 
to  remove  from  the  county  Sligo,  but  there  is  good  reason  to 
believe  that  a  majority  of  them  held  their  ground,  and,  acting  on 
Mr.  Parnell's  principle,  long  before  Mr.  Parnell's  time,  "  kept  a 
grip"  of  their  lands,  and  found  possession  to  be  more  than  the 
proverbial  "  nine  parts  of  the  law." 

At  this  date  the  proud  name  of  O'Connor  Sligo  drops  out  of 
view ;  nor  is  there  henceforth  any  written  evidence  to  attest  the 
condition  of  the  family  or  its  genealogical  succession,  so  that 
history,  strictly  so  called,  can  give  no  help  towards  identifying 
its  present  representative.  Pedigrees  are  generally  traced  by 
means  of  public,  or  of  family  documents,  or  of  both  ;  but  neither 
are  forthcoming  in  the  present  instance ;  for,  the  O'Connors  Sligo, 
having  fallen  from  their  social  status,  public  documents  took  no 
notice  of  them  ;  and  as  they  had  lost  all  their  property,  there 
could  be  no  occasion  for  wills  or  deeds,  even  if  the  law  allowed 
Catholics  to  be  parties  to  such  instruments,  which,  as  everyone 
knows,  it  did  not. 

Nor  could  it  be  expected  that  the  O'Connors  themselves  would 
show  an  interest  in  such  a  subject  amidst  their  sufferings  and 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  205 


dangers,  when  domiciliary  visits  of  the  authorities  were  common, 
and  when  the  preservation  of  a  pedigree  would  be  regarded  as  a 
standing  claim  to  confiscated  estates,  and  therefore  as  a  species 
of  high  treason.  While  Sligo  was  full  of  their  co-religionists, 
and  a  relative  of  their  own  was  dying  there  the  death  of  a  martyr, 
their  great  desire  would  naturally  be,  not  to  assert,  but  to  efface 
themselves. 

In  the  absence  of  written  records,  we  must  recur  to  local  tra- 
dition for  guidance,  and  this  guide  points  unmistakeably  to  Mr. 
Peter  O'Connor  of  Cairnsfoot,  and  his  nephews,  as  the  genuine 
descendants,  and  present  representatives,  of  the  old  O'Connors 
Sligo.  On  this  point  there  seems  to  be  no  difference  of  opinion 
among  such  of  the  old  inhabitants  of  the  town  and  county 
as  still  love  to  talk  of  the  days  that  are  gone.  Sixty  or  seventy 
years  ago  the  tradition  was  still  more  precise  and  emphatic,  for 
the  neighbours  of  Connell  O'Connor,  who  was  Peter  O'Connor's 
grandfather,  and  who  had  some  peculiarity  of  walk,  used  to  say 
of  him,  that  the  step  of  Martin  Backagh — a  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  family — was  breaking  through  him  : 
thus  voicing  the  popular  belief  and  tradition,  that  he  and  his 
belonged  to  the  genuine  old  stock. 

Mr.  Peter  O'Connor  reflects  back  as  much  honour  on  his  ances- 
tors as  he  derives  from  them.  There  never  lived  in  Sligo  a  more 
deeply  respected  man ;  for  all  classes  admire  him,  as  the 
Athenians  admired  Aristides,  whom  they  surnamed  The  Just. 
As  a  magistrate  and  grand  juror,  he  is  the  very  personification 
of  justice,  incapable  of  being  moved  a  hair's  breadth  to  the  right 
or  to  the  left  by  any  earthly  consideration  except  the  merits  of  the 
case  for  adjudication.  As  a  landlord  in  four  of  the  five  baronies 
of  the  county,  he  is  swayed  solely  by  a  desire  to  promote  the 
public  good  and  the  welfare  of  his  tenants;  in  proof  of  which, 
one  has  only  to  call  to  mind  the  schoolhouses  and  teachers* 
residences  which  he  has  erected  and  endowed  at  Carrowroe  in 
Carbury,  Dunflin  in  Tireragh,  and  Crossboy  in  Tirerrill ;  the 
improvements,  both  as  regards  neatness  and  comfort,  which  he  has 
effected  in  the  farmhouses  on  his  estates ;  and  the  solicitude  with 


206 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


which  he  watches  over  his  tenants  in  all  their  concerns  and 
interests — in  their  difficulties  helping  them  with  loans  and  gifts; 
in  their  illness  feeing  doctors  to  attend  them  ;  and  in  all  their 
troubles  sustaining  them  by  his  sympathy,  his  advice,  and  his 
purse. 

While  thus  attentive  to  special  claims,  he  is  not  the  less 
responsive  "  to  every  note  of  complaint  within  the  wide  scale  of 
human  woe."  Though  he  takes  all  the  care  he  can  not  to  let 
the  left  hand  know  what  the  right  hand  doeth,  enough  still  comes 
to  light  to  fill  one  with  wonder  at  the  extent  of  his  benefactions. 
It  would  hardly  be  going  too  far  to  say  that  he  gives  more  than 
all  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  county  put  together.  Memorials 
of  his  charity  are  everywhere  around  you  through  the  town  of 
Sligo — in  respectable  houses  where,  unknown  to  the  world,  he 
relieves  the  genteel  indigent ;  in  the  cabins  of  the  lanes  and 
suburbs,  where  we  may  find  as  many  old  men  and  women,  pen- 
sioners of  his  bounty,  as  would  stock  a  good  sized  hospital  of  the 
Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor ;  in  the  new  schools  on  the  Albert 
Road,  at  the  Lungy,  in  Quay-street,  and  on  Gallows  Hill,  in  con- 
nexion with  which  he  reserves  to  himself  the  little  ambitioned 
and  modest  function  of  defraying  all  the  expenses,  while  he  leaves 
to  others  the  much  coveted  credit  of  being  counted  the  builders; 
and  in  the  Cathedral,  where  the  high  altar,  the  fine  Gothic 
benches,  the  noble  turret  clock,  and  the  charming  chime  of  bells 
must  serve  as  lasting  monuments,  both  of  his  munificence  and  his 
piety. 

The  county  is  little  less  indebted  to  him  than  the  town  ;  for 
there  is  hardly  a  place  of  worship  or  a  schoolhouse  in  it  that  does 
not  count  him  among  its  benefactors  ;  and  so  far-reaching  is  his 
charity,  that  it  sometimes  passes  beyond  town,  and  county,  and 
province,  and  fills  the  needy  with  good  things  even  in  the  metro- 
polis. .  The  writer  will  not  easily  forget,  how  the  late  John 
O'Daly,  the  well-known  bookseller  of  Anglesea  Street,  used  to 
declare  that,  in  the  embarrassment  which  overtook  him  towards 
the  close  of  his  career,  his  best  friend  was  Mr.  O'Connor  of  Sligo, 
whom  he  had  never  seen. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  207 


Next  to  charity,  personal  independence  is  the  leading  feature 
of  Mr.  O'Connor's  character.  Like  the  perfect  man  of  the  Stoics, 
he  is  self-sufficing ;  and  unlike  too  many  who  place  their  happi- 
ness in  the  plaudits  of  others,  and  in  the  possession  of  some 
public  honour  or  office,  he  is  content  with  a  private  station  and 
the  approval  of  his  own  conscience  and  judgment.  Except 
the  Grand  Jury,  the  Board  of  Guardians,  and  the  Dispensary 
Committee,  which  he  attends  sedulously  in  the  interests  respec- 
tively of  the  burdened  tax-payer,  the  destitute,  and  the  sick,  he 
leaves  to  those  who  ambition  them,  other  public  distinctions, 
including  that  of  member  of  parliament  for  the  borough  or  the 
county  of  Sligo,  which,  as  every  one  knows,  was  always  within 
his  reach  and  at  his  acceptance. 

Though  no  party  man,  he  is  a  patriot  of  the  best  type,  ready 
to  sacrifice  everything  for  the  country ;  and  those  who  know 
him  best  will  tell  you,  that  in  some  of  the  crises  through  which 
Ireland  has  passed,  thousands  of  Mr.  O'Connor's  money, 
unknown  to  the  world,  were  expended  in  her  service.  With 
his  benevolence,  his  independence  of  character,  and  his  hundred 
other  noble  qualities,  he  will  bear  comparison  in  many  respects 
with  the  most  distinguished  of  his  ancestors  ;  for  though  they 
held  the  rank  of  chiefs  and  princes,  enjoyed  almost  sovereign 
power,  and  rarely  acknowledged  any  temporal  superior  in  their 
territory,  still,  it  maybe  doubted,  whether  any  of  them,  with  all 
those  prerogatives,  did  so  much  good  in  his  lifetime  as  has  been 
done  already  by  Mr.  Peter  O'Connor,  the  latest  O'Connor 
Sligo. 

The  nephews  of  Mr.  O'Connor  are  worthy,  in  every  respect, 
of  the  head  of  the  family.  They  are  Mr.  James  O'Connor,  of 
Ballyglass,  so  well  known  for  his  talents,  accomplishments,  and 
high  principles  ;  Mr.  Simon  Cullen,  as  upright  a  merchant  and 
as  just  a  magistrate  as  there  is  in  the  province;  Mr.  John 
Mulhall,  the  able  and  universally  esteemed  Private  Secretary  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant ;  and  Mr.  George  Kelly,  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  Connaught  bar. 

Mr.  Peter  O'Connor,  late  of  Minnesota,  and  now  of  California, 


208  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


is  another  nephew,  as  well  as  a  full  namesake  of  Mr.  O'Connor, 
of  Cairnsfoot,  and  may  be  described  as  a  counterpart,  in  the 
United  States,  of  his  uncle  in  Ireland,  exemplifying  in  his  life 
all  the  uncle's  peculiar  virtues  and  talents,  and  held,  in  conse- 
quence, by  everybody  in  similar  esteem  and  respect.  People 
who  have  been  to  America  speak  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise 
of  this  gentleman  and  his  admirable  family,  two  of  whom  are 
nuns,  and  one  a  priest — a  trait  in  which  Mr.  O'Connor  resembles 
the  old  O'Connors  Sligo,  who  were  rarely  without  priests  and 
nuns  in  their  families.  It  is  gratifying  to-  Sligo  men  to  find 
this  scion  of  the  old  stock  command  by  his  native  qualities, 
even  in  a  strange  land,  the  homage  of  all  who  know  him. 

No  doubt  there  are  still  connected  with  the  county  other 
descendants  of  different  branches  of  the  old  O'Connor  stock ; 
and  among  them  may  be  named  Eeverend  Patrick  O'Connor, 
the  respected  Parish  Priest  of  Cloontuskert  and  Kilgefen,  and 
his  brothers,  they  being,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe,  descend- 
ants of  the  Owen  O'Connor  mentioned  in  the  Tripartite  Deed 
between  Strafford,  Leslie,  and  Wilson. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

JACOBITES  AND   WILLIAMITES. 

WHILE  these  changes  in  the  ownership  of  the  lands  of  Sligo 
were  taking  place,  the  county  in  other  respects,  too,  was  in  an 
unsettled  state.  The  persecution  raised  in  England  by  the 
hideous  imposture  of  Titus  Gates  and  Lord  Shaftesbury,  soon 
passing  to  Ireland,  reached  the  county  Sligo  in  a  couple  of 
months,  and  created  a  ferment  in  the  district,  as  was  natural 
enough,  considering  the  mixed  character  of  the  population.  The 
Usurpers,  though  now  twenty  years  in  possession,  were  not  free 
from  apprehension  of  disturbance ;  and  some  of  them,  perhaps, 
believed  the  wild  stories  in  circulation  of  intended  massacres, 
while  others  affected  to  believe  them,  in  order  to  bring  new 
odium  on  the  old  Irish.  The  result  was  that  the  Catholics  of 
the  neighbourhood  had  not  the  life  of  a  dog,  and  were  obliged, 
in  self-preservation,  to  keep  out  of  sight,  while  any  priest  or 
layman  of  position,  that  could  be  reached,  was  arrested  and 
thrown  into  Sligo  gaol,  where  Father  Felix  O'Connor,  the  Prior 
of  the  Dominicans  of  Holy  Cross,  died  the  death  of  a  confessor, 
if  not  of  a  martyr,  in  1678,  when  the  persecution  was  at  its 
worst.* 

This  bad  spirit  was  stirred  up  by  a  proceeding  of  Jeremy  Jones, 
of  Tireragh,  which  he  relates  in  an  interesting  letter,  found  in 
the  Carte  Collection,  and  addressed  to  the  Duke  of  Ormonde. 
The  proceeding  in  question  was  the  arrest  of  some  stroller  or 
traveller  on  pretence  of  his  being  a  Jesuit,  and  the  sending  of 
him  publicly  to  Sligo  to  be  committed  there  to  goal.  An  occur- 
rence of  the  kind,  coupled  with  the  startling  stories  then  coming 
from  England,  could  not  fail  to  throw  the  whole  county  into 

*  Narrative  of  Father  Patrick  McDonogh. 
VOL.  I.  O 


210  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


alarm,  which,  no  doubt,  was  the  very  thing  Jeremy  Jones 
intended  and  desired.  For,  that  the  capture  of  the  so  called 
Jesuit  was  an  episode  of  the  Popish  Plot,  must  be  clear  enough 
to  any  person  that  considers  the  respective  averments  of  Gates 
and  Jones.  "  The  Pope,"  says  Macaulay,  *  in  detailing  Gates' 
allegations,  "  had  entrusted  the  government  of  England  to  the 
Jesuits.  The  Jesuits  had,  by  commissions,  appointed  Catholic 
clergymen,  noblemen,  and  gentlemen,  to  all  the  highest  offices 
in  Church  and  State.  A  French  army  was  to  land  in  Ireland." 

In  the  same  way,  Jones'  Jesuit  "was  one  of  the  twelve  Jesuits 
sent  into  the  country  by  the  Pope  and  French  King  .... 
several  other  Jesuits  had  in  their  keeping  and  trunks  several 
commissions  under  the  great  seal  of  France  and  the  Pope  .... 
their  designs,  if  not  obstructed  before  the  fourth  of  March  next, 
will  redound  to  the  ruin  of  this  nation."  Such  coincidences  are 
too  remarkable  to  be  the  result  of  accident ;  and  they  go  very 
far  to  show  that  Jones,  Thornton,  and  Fitzgerald,  were  bearing 
a  part,  on  a  small  scale,  at  Sligo,  in  the  "  hideous  romance,"  f 
in  which  Gates  and  his  confederates  were  figuring  so  con- 
spicuously in  London,  and  that  the  sensational  statements  on 
both  sides  of  the  channel  were  ejusdem  farrago  libelli.  The 
Duke  of  Grmonde  saw  through  the  imposture,  and  took  no 
notice  of  Jones  or  his  protege,  Fitzgerald,  knowing  well  they 
were  accomplices  of  Shaftesbury. 

It  is  very  likely  they  were  set  in  motion  by  Jones,  the  bishop 
of  Meath,  for  "  nobody,"  says  Carte,  J  "  was  more  active  in 
procuring  these  witnesses  than  the  Bishop  of  Meath,  who  had 
been  Scout-master  General  to  Oliver  Cromwell's  army,  and  who 
now  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  to  serve  that  great  and 
worthy  patriot,  his  very  good  friend  (as  he  styles  him),  the  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury."  Ormonde's  estimate  of  the  Popish  Plot 
witnesses  appears  in  several  of  his  letters,  as,  for  instance,  in  one 
to  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Arran,  in  which  he  writes,  "All  these 

*  History  of  England,  Vol.  I.,  p.  233. 

tldem. 

J  Carte's  Life  of  Ormonde,  Vol.  II.,  p.  498. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  211 


witnesses  (I  doubt),  forswear  themselves.  Those  that  went  out 
of  Ireland  with  bad  English  and  worse  clothes,  are  returned 
well  bred  gentlemen,  well  caronated,  periwigged,  and  clothed. 
Brogues  and  leather  straps  are  converted  to  fashionable  shoes 
and  glittering  buckles ;  which,  next  to  the  zeal  Tories,  thieves, 
and  friars  have  for  the  Protestant  religion,  is  a  main  inducement 
to  Jbring  in  a  shoal  of  informers.  They  feel  it  more  honourable 
and  safe  to  be  the  King's  evidence,  than  a  cow  stealer,  though 
that  be  their  natural  profession."  *  The  extraordinary  letter 
addressed  to  the  Duke  of  Ormonde  by  Jeremy  Jones  is  given  in 
the  notes,  t 


*  Carte's  Life  of  Ormonde.     Vol.  2,  p.  109.     Appendix. 

f'lnSligoe,  Nov.  12,  1678. 
"  May  it  please  your  Grace, 

"  There  was  taken  in  my  neighbourhood  the  last  week  by  one  Henry  Thornton 
(an  officer  in  the  militia  troope  under  my  command),  a  Jesuite,  by  name  John 
Fitzgerald,  borne  in  the  County  of  Kerry,  and,  as  he  saith,  not  above  7  weeks 
in  Ireland.  He  took  shipping  in  August  last  at  Nants  in  ffrance  and  came 
for  England,  and  staid  in  London  some  time,  and  from  thence  took  shipping  at 
Bristoll  and  landed  at  Belfast  the  beginning  of  September  following,  and  soe 
forwards.  After  apprehending  of  him  I  had  him  before  me  as  justice  of  the 
peace,  and  some  examinations  taken  of  the  said  Thornton  and  others  that  were 
by  when  he  was  soe  apprehended,  and  heard  him  utter  some  words  that  dis- 
covered that  he  was  sent  over  a«  one  of  the  twelve  Jesuites  sent  into  the 
country  by  the  Pope  and  ffrench  King  to  seduce  the  people  by  their  service. 
After  taking  which  examinations  I  had  the  justice's  Mittimus  with  him  to 
Gaole,  but  taking  him  that  night  to  my  own  house,  and  telling  him  of  the 
danger  he  was  of  death,  and  likewise  promising  him  to  intercede  with  your 
Grace  for  him,  if  he  would  doe  good  service  and  discover  the  rest  of  his  con- 
federates in  this  Kingdom,  whereupon  after  he  had  sworn  both  myself  and 
Thornton  to  his  secrecy  and  not  to  reveale  what  he  should  tell  us  but  to  your 
Grace  and  one  Booth,  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  this  county,  and  a  brother-in-law 
of  mine,  he  immediately  then  did  disclose  unto  us  where  there  were  eight  or 
nine  of  his  society  dispersed,  according  to  the  enclosed  note  of  their  names  and 
several  others  which  had  in  their  keeping  and  Trunckes  severall  Commissions 
under  the  great  seal  of  ffrance  and  the  Pope  with  several  other  things  of 
consequence  he  ommits  until  he  comes  before  your  Grace,  which  if  not 
obstructed  before  the  4th  of  March  next,  will  redound  to  the  ruin  of  this 
nation.  On  this  I  brought  him  to  the  towne  of  Sligo  and  have  him  secured  in 
the  Town  Martiall's  house  with  a  soldier  of  the  army  attending  him  night  and 
day  at  my  charge,  being  loath  to  cast  him  into  the  common  dungeon  or  to  dis- 
courage him  from  doing  his  intended  service  before  your  Grace,  which  both  he 


212  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


This  trouble  was  hardly  over  when  Sligo  was  involved  in  the 
contest  between  King  James  and  William  of  Orange.  This 
conflict  took  neither  side  by  surprise ;  for  both  parties  had 
regarded  it  for  some  time  as  inevitable,  and  were  busy  in  their 
respective  preparations.  The  Williamites  were  the  first  to  move 
in  Sligo.  On  the  4th  January,  1688,  they  held  a  public 
meeting  in  the  town,  constituted  themselves  a  military 
"  association,"  and  appointed  as  their  cornmanders-in-chief, 
Lord  Kingston  and  Chidley  Coote,  the  former  being  the  son  of 
the  first  Lord  Kingston,  and  the  latter  the  son  -of  the  first  Lord 
Collooney  ;  two  lords  who  owed  both  titles  and  fortunes  to  their 
revolutionary  principles  and  proceedings.  The  interval  between 
the  4th  January  and  the  22nd  March,  was  passed  by  the  officers 
and  men  of  the  association  in  furthering  the  objects  of  their 
organization,  in  procuring  horses,  arms,  and  ammunition,  in 
acquiring  military  discipline,  in  finishing  the  stone  fort,  erected 
by  the  Cromwellians,  in  re-modelling  the  Green  Fort,  and  in 
settling  outpost  garrisons  at  Newtown,  Ballintogher,  Markree, 
Collooney,  and  Cottlestown,  in  Tireragh.*  While  thus  engaged 
they  intended  to  remain  at  Sligo,  and  hold  the  town  for  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  but  after  keeping  possession  of  it  from  the 
4th  January  to  the  22nd  March, ^they  left  the  place  much 
against  their  will,  at  the  latter  date,  in  compliance  with  an 
order  or  invitation  of  Colonel  Lundy,  who  directed  them  to 
move  to  the  North,  and  quit  Sligo,  observing  that  this  town 
would  be  untenable  in  case  mishap  befel  Derry  and  Enniskillen, 
an  advice  for  which  Lundy  has  been  much  blamed,  though 
perhaps  the  best  that  he  or  any  military  man  could  give  in 
the  circumstances.  Having  remained  for  about  a  month  on  the 
banks  of  the  Erne,  Lord  Kingston  went  to  England,  and  his 

and  I  humbly  desire  may  be  speedily  done  for  fear  of  the  Rabble  and  the  fear 
of  sudaine  absenting  of  the  said  Jesuites  out  of  this  Kingdom,  soe  humbly  crav- 
ing your  Grace's  speedy  orders  what  shall  be  further  done  with  him," 

"In  all  submission,  I  subscribe  your  Grace's  most  obedient  servant, 

"JERE  JONES." 

*  Lord  Kingston's  "Relation"  in  Mackenzie's  Narrative  of  the  Siege  of 
Londonderry,  pp.  15,  16,  17,  18. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  213 


troops,  on  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  retired  to  Enniskillen, 
and  were  thus  able  to  take  part  in  those  conflicts  of  Belleek,*  Bel- 
turbet,f  Bundroose,J  Newtown  ButlerJ  Boyle,[|  and  elsewhere, 
which  have  surrounded  the  name  of  Enniskilliriers  with  a  halo 
of  well-earned  renown. 

One  result  of  the  important  action  of  Newtown  Butler  was 
the  falling  back  of  Sarsfield  upon  Sligo,  a  position,  however, 
which  he  was  obliged  to  quit  in  a  few  days  under  circumstances 
disgraceful  in  the  extreme  to  all  under  his  command,  if  we  are 
to  rely  on  the  account  of  the  occurrence  which  is  found  in 
Hamilton's  Actions  of  the  Enniskillen-men,  and  which  is  to 
this  effect: — Colonel  Tiffan  having  been  stationed  at  Bally- 
shannon  by  the  Enniskilliners,  sent  his  lieutenant-colonel  and 
son-in-law,  Francis  Gore,  in  the  direction  of  Sligo  to  reconnoitre, 
and  get  intelligence  of  the  enemy.  Gore,  being  the  son  of  Sir 
Francis  Gore,  of  Ardtermon,  had  an  acquaintance  with  the 
district,  which  fitted  him  well  for  the  service  laid  on  him;  and 
recognizing  in  a  Jacobite  prisoner,  brought  in  near  Ardtermon, 
his  own  foster  brother,  he  promised  the  captive  liberty,  and 
substantial  reward  if  he  carried  privately  to  Sligo  a  friendly 
message  to  four  or  five  officers  of  the  Irish  army,  whom  Gore 
affected  to  be  very  desirous  to  serve.  The  message  was,  that 
they  should  save  themselves  at  once,  as  twenty  thousand 
Williamites  were  marching  in  hot  haste  to  Sligo,  resolved  to 
put  everything  there  to  fire  and  sword  on  their  arrival.  The 
foster  brother  engaged  to  do  as  desired — to  put  the  officers 
named  on  their  guard,  and  to  leave  all  others  to  their  fate  ;  but 
on  getting  beyond  the  reach  of  Gore's  troops,  he  warned,  as 
Gore  intended  and  wished,  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  met 
with  on  the  road,  of  the  danger  they  were  in,  and  on  entering 
Sligo  spread  the  alarm  on  all  sides  through  the  town  and  camp. 
The  stratagem  deceived  everybody  ;  and  troops  of  soldiers  and 
civilians  were  already  well  on  their  way  to  Athlone  before 
Sarsfield  heard  anything  of  the  panic.  He  lost  not  a  moment 

*  Harris's  Life   of  William  III.,  p.  218.     t  Ibid.,  p.  219.    $  Ibid.,  p.  221. 
§  Ibid.,  p.  224.     i|  Ibid.,  p.  246. 


214  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


in  calliDg  the  troops  before  him  by  beat  of  drum,  but  no  one 
came  at  the  call,  so  that  this  gallant  soldier  was  under  the 
humiliating  necessity  of  following  the  fugitives,  which,  however, 
he  did  not  do  till  he  broke  up  with  his  own  hands  the  carnages 
of  the  cannon.  Whether  these  are  or  are  not  the  exact  circum- 
stances of  Sarsfield's  leaving  Sligo — which  is,  to  say  the  least, 
extremely  improbable,* — it  is  certain  that  he  had  to  abandon  the 
town  on  this  occasion,  and  that  the  place  was  immediately 
occupied  by  the  Williamites.j 

While  the  armies  of  James  and  Schomberg  were  lying  idle  at 
Dundalk,  Sligo  became  the  centre  of  some  stirring  events.  The 
Enniskilliners,  bearing  ill  the  inaction  of  the  camp, sought  Schom- 
berg's  leave  to  proceed  to  Sligo  in  quest  of  employment,  and  the 
Duke  not  only  complied  with  their  request,  but  sent  with  them 
strong  cavalry  patrols,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Russell, 
to  keep  the  passes  clear  between  Connaught  and  Dundalk.  The 
dashing  Lloyd  now  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  deal  a  blow  to 
the  enemy.  Hearing  that  large  numbers  of  the  Irish — some 
said  5000,  but  Lloyd  himself,  in  a  letter  to  Schomberg,  reported 
them  as  about  900 — were  assembled  at  Boyle,  ready  to  fall  on 
Sligo,  he  resolved  to  be  beforehand  with  them,  as  was  his  wont. 
Putting  himself  at  the  head  of  1000  men,J  he  marched  at  night 

*  This  account  rests  entirely  on  the  authority  of  Hamilton,  who  thus  intro- 
duces it :  "  And  here  I  would  have  ended,  having  been  no  longer  an  eye-witness 
to  any  of  their  actions  at  Enniskillen,  but  I  cannot  omit  the  manner  of  our 
taking  Sligo,  and  driving  Colonel  Sarsfield  and  his  party  from  thence.  And 
although  I  was  not  present  at  the  action  as  at  most  of  the  rest,  yet  I  had  the 
account  of  it  from  a  person  of  good  credit,  and  so  may  with  confidence  relate 
it  here  ;  and  thus  it  was.  "  This  hearsay  evidence  is  an  utterly  insufficient 
voucher  for  transactions  so  improbable  in  themselves.  Story  has  no  reference 
to  this  gossiping  narrative  ;  nor  has  Harris ;  nor  Macaulay,  who  collected 
every  scrap  of  evidence  that  bore  upon  the  struggle  between  William  and 
James,  and  who  would  hardly  have  failed  to  give  us  a  picturesque  paragraph  " 
or  two  on  the  dramatic  occurrences  at  Sligo,  if  he  regarded  them  as  founded 
in  fact.  We  may  regard  the  whole  story  then  as  a  fabrication  ;  though 
adopted  and  paraphrased,  with  additions,  by  Major  Wood  Martin  in  Sligo  and 
the  Enniskittiners. 

t  Macaulay 's  History  of  England,  Vol.  III.,  p.  245,  first  edition. 

J  Harris'  Life  of  William  HI.,  p.  246. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  215 


towards  them,  hoping  to  take  them  by  surprise.  They  were, 
however,  on  the  alert ;  but  this  did  not  prevent  or  delay  Lloyd's 
attack ;  and  falling  on  them  with  his  characteristic  vigour,  he 
gained  a  complete  victory,  slew  about  700  on  the  field,  and  in  the 
pursuit,  took  more  than  forty  officers  prisoners,  including  the 
Colonel  in  command,  and  two  other  Colonels,  and  between  Boyle, 
Jamestown,  and  Drumsna,  secured  the  enormous  prey  of  10,000 
cattle. 

This  victory  afforded  Schomberg's  army  the  only  pleasant 
moments  they  enjoyed  while  detained  in  the  pestilential  camp 
at  Dundalk  ;  for  when  the  despatch,  which  was  sent  to  announce 
the  good  news,  reached  the  Duke,  his  Grace,  not  only  rode 
slowly,  with  head  uncovered,  along  the  Enniskillen  horse  and  foot, 
drawn  up  in  line  to  receive  the  compliment,  but  he  caused  the 
triumph  to  be  proclaimed  by  all  the  ordnance  of  the  camp,  and 
of  the  ships  in  the  harbour,  thus  making  land  and  sea  to  join  in 
glorifying  the  event. 

The  triumph,  however,  was  short-lived.  James,  acting  on  the 
principle  Fas  est  et  ab  hoste  doceri,  detached  from  the  royal  army 
five*  regiments  for  service  in  and  around  Sligo,  as  Schomberg 
had  done.  This  small  force  was  put  under  the  command 
of  Sarsfield,  who  did  not  allow  the  grass  to  grow  under  his  feet. 
Impatient  to  retrieve  the  discredit  of  the  hasty  evacuation  of 
Sligo,  he  seized  Jamestown,  which  Lloyd's  garrison  relinquished 
without  striking  a  blow,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  next  day 
entered  the  town  of  Sligo  after  an  extraordinary  march,  and  after 
sweeping,  at  the  end  of  it,  out  of  his  way  the  enemy  who,  having 
taken  up  an  advantageous  position,  tried  hard  to  bar  his  entry 
into  the  town.  As  Sarsfield  entered  by  the  south  side,  Russell 
with  his  horse  left  by  the  north  in  retreat  to  Ballyshannon ;  but 
Lloyd  and  a  French  captain,  named  St.  Sauveur,  instead  of  fol- 
lowing the  example  and  advice  of  Russell,  though  chief  in  com- 
mand, resolved  to  make  a  stand,  and  with  this  object  threw  them- 
selves, the  former  into  the  Green  Fort,  and  St.  Sauveur  into  the 

*  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  vol.  3,  p.  429. 


216  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


old  castle.  On  thinking  better  of  the  situation,  Lloyd  withdrew 
his  men  during  the  night,  and  marched  after  Colonel  Russell, 
but  St.  Sauveur,  with  the  characteristic  vanity  of  the  Frenchman, 
would  not  give  in  so  readily  ;  and  finding  the  old  castle  unten- 
able, he  led  his  party  into  the  Stone  Fort.*  There  was  no 
electric  light  in  those  days;  and  St.  Sauveur,  to  guard  against 
an  attack  in  the  dark  on  his  quarters,  having  smeared  some  fir 
poles  with  tar,  set  fire  to  them,  and  thus  lighted  up  the  fort  and 
the  approaches  to  it.  The  precaution  was  a  wise  one ;  for  it 
enabled  him  to  see  a  battering  engine,  called'  the  Sow,f  which 
the  Irish,  after  nightfall,  began  to  move  towards  the  fort,  but 
which  he  destroyed  before  it  could  be  got  into  position.  Finding, 
however,  the  place  untenable,  the  Frenchman  surrendered  it,  but 
on  highly  honourable  terms ;  and  Sarsfield  was  so  pleased  with 
the  gallant  conduct  of  the  foreigner  and  his  little  force,  that  he 
did  all  he  could,  but  in  vain,  to  bring  them  over  to  the  side  of 
James. 

These  events  raised  Sarsfield  greatly  in  the  estimation  of 
friends  and  enemies.  In  any  case  the  surprising  march  in  one 
day  of  so  many  miles  over  the  rugged  road  which  lay  between 
Jamestown  and  Sligo,  and  which  included  the  passage  of  the 
Curlews,  the  Alps  of  Connaught,  would  add  to  the  fame  of  the 
most  distinguished  commanders  ;  and  the  magnitude  of  the  feat 
in  this  instance  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  character  of  the 
adversaries  that  blocked  the  way — Lloyd,  who  never  before 
turned  the  back  on  any  enemy,  and  St.  Sauveur,  conspicuous  for 
bravery,  even  among  the  bravest  captains,  in  Schomberg's  army. 
Sarsfield's  capture  of  Sligo  on  this  occasion  may  not  have  been  as 
fruitful  in  results  as  his  famous  surprise  of  Williams'  siege  train, 
but  in  itself  one  exploit  was  hardly  less  brilliant  than  the  other. 

*  As  Colonel  Wood  Martin  confounds  the  "fort"  and  the  "castle,"  it  is 
well  to  note  the  distinction.  The  Williamites  first  entered  the  "  castle,"  but 
finding  it  "crasie,"  passed  out  of  it  to  the  Stone  Fort.  "  The  castle  being 
crasie,"  says  a  letter  in  the  llth  volume  of  the  Thorpe  collection,  "our  men 
quitted  it  and  got  into  the  fort." 

t  For  a  detailed  account  of  this  engine,  see  Harris'  Life  of  William  III., 
pp.  246-247. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  217 


One  of  the  regiments  under  Sarsfield's  command  during  this 
episode  of  the  war,  was  that  of  Colonel  Henry  Luttrell ;  and  it 
was,  apparently,  now  for  the  first  time  that  this  unprincipled 
man  was  brought  into  official  connexion  with  Sligo,  though 
Major  Wood  Martin,  without  quoting  any  authority,  and  appar- 
ently without  any  authority  to  quote,  tells  us  that  "  one  of 
James'  first  acts  was  the  appointment  of  Colonel  Henry  Luttrell 
to  the  Governorship  of  Sligo."*  While  Sarsfield  moved  about  in 
the  neighbourhood,  he  left  Luttrell  in  Sligo  palisading  the  town, 
to  make  up,  as  far  as  might  be,  for  the  absence  of  a  wall.  The 
line  of  palisades  started  from  the  Green  Fort,  crossed  the  river 
near  the  present  old  distillery  building,  ran  up  the  Chapel  Hill, 
passed  westward  through  Old  Market  Street,  High  Street,  on  to 
Prince's  Street,  turned  down  towards  George's  Street,  and, 
wheeling  back  through  Cadger's  Field  and  along  the  quay,  com- 
plected a  zig-zag  circle,  which  enclosed  within  its  ambit  the 
Green  Fort  and  the  Stone  Fort,  the  Abbey  and  St.  John's  Church, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  area  of  the  present  town.  In  this 
work,  as  well  as  in  the  strengthening  of  the  Green  Fort,  Colonel 
Luttrell  was  aided  by  R.  Burton,  "  his  Majesty's  engineer,"  whose 
presence  shows  the  great  value  set  at  this  time,  by  his  Majesty 
and  his  Majesty's  advisers,  on  the  town  of  Sligo. 

Henry  Luttrell  was  the  James  Carey  of  the  Williamite  war, 
quite  as  notorious  and  odious,  and,  considering  his  military  pro- 
fession, rank  and  obligations,  still  more  guilty  than  the  wretched 
Invincible.  A  man  of  undaunted  courage,  and  brilliant  talents, 
and  member  of  a  family  second  to  none  in  the  country,  his 
baseness  and  guilt  were  aggravated  by  his  personal  gifts  and 
family  honours.  And,  as  if  he  communicated  a  taint  to  the 
blood  of  the  family,  the  Luttrells  that  came  after  him  were  so 
infamous  for  his  and  their  own  crimes,  that  Junius,  in  his  day, 
considered  it  impossible  to  degrade  further  "  the  name  of 
Luttrell."f 


*  Sligo  and  the  Enniskilliners,  p.  63. 

f  Quoted  in  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  Vol.  4,  p.  109. 


218  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


The  exact  time  at  which  Satan  entered  into  this  Judas  is  not 
known,  but  it  is  probable  enough  that  the  evil  spirit  took  posses- 
sion of  him  when  he  was  recalled  from  Sligo  to  make  room  for 
Sir  Teague  O'Regan.  For  his  conduct  soon  after,  at  the  battle 
of  the  Boyne,  was  equivocal,  and  in  evident  contrast  with  the 
gallantry  which  carried  everything  before  it  in  the  attack  on 
the  Williamites  at  Sligo.  Anyhow,  he  was  detected  in  corre- 
spondence with  Ginkell  during  the  siege  of  Limerick,  and  tried 
by  a  court-martial  for  the  proceeding.  And  when  the  capitu- 
lation of  that  city  left  him  more  free  to  show  his  hand,  he 
laboured,  by  word  and  example,  to  keep  the  Irish  at  home,  as 
Ginkell  desired,  and  to  prevent  them  from  accompanying  Sars- 
iield  and  other  leaders  into  the  service  of  France  and  Spain. 
For  the  service  rendered  on  this  occasion,  and  "  perhaps/'  says 
Macaulay,  "  for  other  services,  he  was  rewarded  with  a  grant  of 
the  large  estate  of  his  elder  brother,  Simon,  who  firmly  adhered 
to  the  cause  of  James,  with  a  pension  of  five  hundred  pounds  a 
year  from  the  Crown,  and  with  the  abhorrence  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  population." 

Though  Henry  Luttrell  lived  up  to  the  year  1717,  he  was 
pursued  by  the  unrelenting  hatred  of  his  fellow  countrymen  to 
the  last,  and  on  the  night  of  the  2nd  of  November  in  that  year, 
as  he  was  going,  in  a  sedan  chair,  from  one  street  to  another  in 
Dublin,  he  was  shot  and  mortally  wounded,  surviving  only  to 
the  next  day,  the  hand  that  slew  him  being,  says  Matthew 
O'Conor,  "  probably  that  of  an  enthusiast  who  sought  to  avenge 
the  wrongs  of  his  country  in  the  blood  of  the  traitor."  Even 
the  blood  of  the  wretched  man  did  not  assuage  the  feelings  of 
his  enemies,  and  the  kind  of  Requiescat  commonly  pronounced 
over  his  grave  may  be  inferred  from  the  bitterness  of  the  follow- 
ing popular  epigram  of  the  time : — 

"  If  Heav'n  be  pleas'd,  when  mortals  cease  to  sin — 
And  Hell  be  pleas'd,  when  villains  enter  in — 
If  earth  be  pleas'd,  when  it  entombs  a  knave — 
All  must  be  pleas'd — now  Luttrell's  in  the  grave  !" 

After  remaining  for  more  than  six  months  at  Sligo,  Luttrell, 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  2 19' 


with  his  regiment  was  called  away,*  partly,  to  lend  a  hand  in 
the  impending  battle  between  James  and  William,  and  partly 
to  make  room  for  Sir  Teague  O'Regan,  who,  after  his  admirable 
defence  of  Charlemont,  was  judged  the  fittest  person  to  be 
made  governor  of  Sligo,  at  a  crisis  when  the  town  had  become 
more  than  ever,  what  it  has  been  often  called,  (i  the  Key  of 
Connaught."  Appointed  in  June  1690,  O'Regan  continued 
in  authority  till  the  15th  of  September,  1691,  and  during  all 
that  time  took  his  measures  so  adroitly,  that  he  never  gave 
the  enemy,  though  bold  and  experienced,  and  always  on  the 
watch,  the  smallest  advantage.  Setting  comparatively  little 
store  by  the  stone  fort,  he  relied  chiefly  on  the  Green  Fort,  which 
is  often  called  Sir  Teague  O'Regan's  Fort,  as  well  because  he 
resided  so  long  in  it,  as  because  he  added  greatly  to  its  strength 
by  new  works.  Art,  combining  thus  with  nature,  rendered  this 
great  earth  work  impregnable  by  any  open  or  sudden  assault. 

And  Sir  Teague  took  care  to  be  well  informed  of  what  was 
going  on  in  the  neighbourhood,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  to  pre- 
vent any  mischief,  which  might  be  brewing,  from  coming  to  a 
head.  Hearing,  in  June,  1691,  that  a  large  force  of  Williamites, 
500  foot  and  200  horset  had  passed  round  through  Leitrim, 
from  the  north  to  Tireragh,  he  hastened  in  person  with  200  foot 
and  80  horse  to  the  bridge  of  Ballysadare,  to  observe  and  check 
their  movements ;  and  when  they  tried  to  force  the  bridge,  he 
drove  them  back  with  great  loss,  and  was  on  the  point  of 
chasing  them  off  the  field,  when,  in  the  nick  of  time,  they 
received  large  reinforcements,  upon  which,  though  pursued 
for  some  distance,  he  moved  his  men  in  good  order  to  Sligo, 
himself  being  among  the  last  to  enter  the  town. 

Another  sally,  which  took  place,  at  the  dawn  of  day,  on  the  5th 
of  September,  1691,  was  still  more  successful.  This  time  the 
number  of  men  led  out  was  three  times  as  great  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding instance,  and  the  leader  was  Colonel  Edward  Scott.  The 
object  of  the  movement  was  to  fall  on  Sir  Albert  Conyngham, 


*  Harris's  Life  of  William  III.,  p.  266. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  330.     Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet,  p.  34. 


220  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


who  with  his  regiment  of  dragoons  wasunder  canvasat  Knockbeg, 
beside  Collooney.  The  guard  that  morning  was  ill -kept  at 
Knockbeg;  for,  before  the  alarm  was  sounded,  Scott's  men 
were  among  the  tents;  and,  before  any  resistance  could  be 
offered,  Sir  Albert  was  transpierced  with  a  halbert  as  he  was 
trying  to  get  into  the  saddle,  and  several  of  his  men  were  put 
to  the  sword,  while  the  rest  of  the  regiment,  abandoning 
their  commander  and  their  comrades,  and  flying  off  in  a  dis- 
graceful panic,  never  drew  rein  till  they  arrived  at  Boyle, 
reaching  that  place  in  a  plight  which,  even  by  their  own 
official  account,*  was  sorry  in  the  extreme. 

Notwithstanding  these  successes,  the  superior  numbers  and 
resources  of  the  enemy  were  soon  to  prevail.  As  Athlone 
and  Galway  had  been  just  taken  from  the  partizans  of  James, 
the  Williamites  were  now  able  to  send  overwhelming  forces  to 
Sligo.  Between  the  troops  despatched  from  Galway  under 
Balldearg  O'Donnell,  and  a  well  equipped  body  of  5,000  militia, 
levied  in  Dublin  and  other  places,  and  led  by  Lord  Granard, 
who  was  appointed  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  troops 
employed  in  the  reduction  of  Sligo,  there  must  have  been  about 
10,000  men  on  the  south  side  of  the  town,  when  his  Lordship 
appeared  before  it  on  the  12th  of  September.  Confronted 
by  this  irresistible  force;  invested,  on  one  side,  by  the 
sea,  and,  on  the  other  sides,  by  a  chain  of  posts  stretching 
from  Killybegs,  in  the  north,  to  Tireragb,  in  the  west ;  without 
hope  of  relief  from  any  quarter;  with  no  good  object  to  serve 
by  prolonging  the  resistance ;  and  with  a  prospect  of  being  of 
use  in  Limerick,  where  the  followers  of  James  were  making 
their  final  effort  to  retrieve  the  royal  cause ;  O'Regan,  after 
satisfying  to  the  full  the  claims  of  honour  and  duty,  felt  bound, 
as  a  practical,  conscientious  man,  entrusted  with  the  fate  of  all 
serving  under  him,  to  accept  the  honourable  terms  granted  to 
the  garrison,  of  proceeding  to  Limerick  with  their  baggage  and 
arms,  and  of  taking  with  them  ample  provisions  for  the  journey, 
these  terms  to  extend  to  all  the  military  adherents  of  James 
*  Bally sadare  and  Kilvarnet,  p.  69. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  221 


in  the  neighbourhood.  Till  he  received  these  liberal  terms,  Sir 
Teague  held  out  unflinchingly;  and  even  the  night  of  the 
day,  on  which  Granard  arrived,  was  passed  in  an  ordnance  duel 
between  his  Lordship  and  the  sturdy  governor,  in  which  an 
English  ensign  had  his  head  whipped  off  by  a  cannon  from  the 
Green  Fort.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Mitchelburn,  who 
conducted  the  siege,  and  who  was  taxed  at  the  time  with 
self-seeking,  it  seems  admitted  on  all  hands  that  O'Regan, 
throughout  the  entire  defence,  bore  himself  disinterestedly  and 
even  chivalrously. 

Mitchelburn  gave  out  that  the  place  had  been  surrendered  to 
himself  before  Lord  Granard  appeared  on  the  scene,  but  it  is 
plain  from  the  official  correspondence,  from  Harris,  *  and  from 
the  actual  conflict  between  his  Lordship  and  the  town,  that  the 
statement  is  untrue. 

There  is  nothing,  at  least  nothing  that  the  writer  has  seen, 
to  show  that  the  garrison  reached  Limerick  before  the  capitulation 
of  that  city.  That,  on  the  contrary,  they  stopped  or  were 
detained  somewhere  on  the  way,  would  seem  to  follow  from  the 
13th  of  the  Military  Articles,  which  runs  thus,  "  Those  of  the 
garrison  of  Sligo  that  are  joined  to  the  Irish  army,  shall  have 
the  benefit  of  this  capitulation;  and  orders  shall  be  sent  to  them 
that  are  to  convey  them  up,  to  bring  them  hither  to  Limerick 
the  shortest  way."  By  this  article,  and  the  preamble  to  the 
Civil  Articles,  which  declares  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  to  be  "  in 
the  behalf  of  the  Irish  Inhabitants  of  the  city  and  county  of 
Limerick,  and  the  counties  of  Clare,  Kerry,  Cork,  Sligo,  and 
Mayo/'  it  is  seen  that  the  Irish  inhabitants  of  the  county  Sligo 
are  expressly  guaranteed  the  benefits  of  the  treaty. 

The  following  unpublished  letter  of  Colonel  Mitchelburn, 
taken  from  Clarke's  Correspondence  (MS.  in  Trinity  College), 
contains  so  many  interesting  details  in  connexion  with  the  siege 
and  surrender  of  Sligo  that  it  is  given  here  entire.  It  is 
addressed  to  the  Lords  Justices.f 

*  Page  322. 

+  Owing  to  pressure  on  space  the  letter  is  omitted  here,  but  will,  if  possible, 
be  given  in  the  Appendix. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  TREATMENT  OF  CATHOLICS. 

THE  treaty  of  Limerick  not  only  put  an  end  to  the  conflict 
between  James  and  William,  but  closed  that  long  series  of 
wars  in  which  the  Irish  had  been  opposed  to  the  English  from 
the  invasion  of  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  century.  From  1691 
there  was  no  uprising  of  the  Irish  against  the  English  for  more 
than  a  century,  when  the  partial  outbreak  of  1798  took  place. 
But  the  times  which  followed  the  treaty  of  Limerick,  if  free 
from  the  evil  of  war,  suffered  from  other  evils,  hardly  less 
grievous;  and  certainly  more  humiliating;  for  war  is  at  all 
events  evidence  of  life  and  spirit,  whereas  the  dumbness,  the 
dejection,  the  stagnation,  which  prevailed  all  over  the  country 
in  the  eighteenth  century  indicated  only  disease  or  death. 
Whatever  spirit  survived  in  the  country  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
war  was  soon  crushed  out  by  the  Penal  laws  and  the  tyranny  of 
those  who  administered  them. 

In  the  year  1691,  a  couple  of  months  after  the  Articles  of 
Limerick  were  signed,  an  Act  of  Parliament  excluded  Catholics 
from  Parliament,  from  municipal  corporations,  from  civil  and 
military  offices,  and  for  the  most  part,  from  the  exercise  of  the 
liberal  professions ;  in  1695,  another  act  banished  all  Papists, 
exercising  ecclesiastical  j  urisdiction  under  the  penalty  of  high 
treason  if  they  returned ;  in  1703,  under  Queen  Anne,  was 
passed  the  first  Act  to  Prevent  the  further  Growth  of  Popery, 
which,  along  with  renewing  the  prohibitions  and  penalties  of 
1695,  ordered  all  Popish  priests  to  be  registered  at  the  Quarter 
Sessions  to  be  held  after  St.  John  the  Baptist  Day  in  1704 ; 
and  in  1709  the  second  Act  to  Prevent  the  further  Growth  of 
Popery,  imposing  the  oath  of  abjuration  on  the  Priests  whose 
names,  residences,  and  parishes,  they  had  already  ascertained. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  223 


In  these  Acts  the  laity  were  not  forgotten,  for  they  were  disabled 
from  purchasing  land  ;  from  renting  lands  on  beneficial  terms  : 
from  holding  place  or  office ;  and  from  educating  their  children 
either  at  home  or  abroad. 

Bad  as  these  laws  were  in  themselves,  the  evil  was  greatly 
aggravated  by  the  way  in  which  they  were  administered.  "  The 
corruption  at  the  source,"  says  Macpherson,  "  extended  itself  to 
every  channel  of  Government;  the  subordinate  magistrates,  the 
justices  of  the  peace,  as  if  all  law  was  at  an  end,  made  their  own 
will  and  pleasure  the  rule  of  their  conduct — depriving  many  of 
their  effects,  and  dispossessing  many  of  their  lands." 

The  registration  of  the  clergy,  which  took  place  in  compliance 
with  the  law  of  1703,  casts  considerable  light  on  the  conduct  of 
the  county  Sligo  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  as 
it  gives  the  names  of  the  Catholic  Parish  Priests  of  the  county 
at  the  time,  the  parishes  which  they  served,  their  age,  their 
residences,  the  dates  of  their  ordination,  the  names  of  the 
ordaining  bishops,  and  the  names  of  two  sureties,  bound  each  in 
the  penal  sum  of  £50  sterling,  to  guarantee  "  that  every  such 
Popish  priest  shall  be  of  peaceable  behaviour,  and  not  remove 
out  of  such  county  where  his  or  their  place  of  abode  lies,  into 
any  other  part  of  the  kingdom.''  In  Dr.  Renehan's  Collections 
on  Irish  Church  History,  it  is  stated  that  the  two  securities 
should  be  Protestant,  but  this  seems  to  be  an  error,  for  the  act 
speaks  only  of  "  sufficient  sureties  "  without  any  reference  to 
their  religion,  and  some  of  the  county  Sligo  bail  belonged  to 
well-known  Catholic  families,  as  the  Creans,  the  Harts,  the 
MacDonoghs,  and  must  have  been  Catholics  themselves. 

The  execution  of  those  acts,  and  of  the  instructions  constantly 
issuing  from  Dublin  Castle  regarding  them,  formed  for  a  long 
time  the  chief  occupation  of  the  local  authorities  throughout  the 
country.  The  Justices  of  the  Peace,  though  bigoted  and  desirous 
to  execute  the  Penal  Laws,  found  themselves  perfectly  unable 
to  carry  their  wishes  into  effect.  Quid  leges  sine  moribus  ? 
and  as  the  principles,  the  faith,  and  the  feelings  of  the  people 
were  in  direct  antagonism  to  these  persecuting  enactments,  the 


224  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 

magistrates  were  constantly  crossed  and  balked  in  their  projects 
and  proceedings. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  in  Sligo  as  well  as  in  other  places. 
Several  letters  which  passed  between  the  central  authorities  in 
Dublin  and  the  Sligo  magistrates  are  preserved  in  the  Record 
Office, Dublin,  and  the  correspondence  shows  the  great  pressure  of 
the  Castle  authorities  on  the  one  side,  and  the  zeal  and  efforts 
of  the  magistrates  on  the  other,  as  well  as  the  obstacles  which 
rendered  those  efforts  ineffectual.      Under  the  date  of  December 
12th,  1712,  we   find  Percy  Gethin,    W.  Ormsby,  and  Richard 
Lindsay,  writing  to  the  Castle,  that  they  had  summoned  the 
priests  to  come  in  and  take  the  oath  of  abjuration,  that  none 
of  those  summoned  appeared,  and  that  in  consequence  warrants 
were  issued  against  the  defaulters,  but  without  effect.     Another 
letter  of  the  same  time,  signed  by  Edward  Wingfield,  W.  Ormsby, 
William    Smith,  George  Wood,    and  Robert  Lindsay,  informs 
the  Supreme    Council    that    they   had  again  issued  warrants 
for  the  "  apprehending  of  all  such  Popish  priests  as  had  not 
taken  the  oath  of  abjuration."      On  the  16th  April,  1714,  the 
High  Sheriff,  William  Smith,  reports  that  he  had  distributed 
the   last  Proclamation    relating    to   Papists,   to   the   following 
Justices  of  the  Peace — William  Ormsby,  Percy  Gethin,  Robert 
Lindsay,   Richard   Crofton,    Lewis   Jones,  Edward   Wingfield, 
Kean  O'Hara,    Theobald  Caulfield,  Francis   King,   and  John 
De  Butt.     Two  months  later  (8th  June),  in  answer  to  a  com- 
munication from  Dublin  Castle  requiring  the  magistrates  to  "  put 
the  laws  in  execution  against  all  Popish  Regulars  and  Seculars," 
seven   of  the   Sligo   Justices    of    the   Peace — E.   Crofton,   R. 
Lindsay,  H.  King,  W.  Ormsby,  Percy  Gethin,  Toby  Caulfield, 
and  Lewis  Jones — writes  to  Secretary  Dawson,  "  We  doe  assure 
you  her  Majesty  has  not  subjects  in  any  of  her  dominions  who 
would  more  faithfully  obey  her  commands,  and  would  sooner 
put  them  in   execution   than  those   in   the  magistracy  of  this 
county.     We  are  obliged  to  let  you  know  that  we  have  made 
use  of  all  expedients  we  could  think  of  by  issuing  warrants  and 
otherwise,  and  found  no  benefit  of  it,  and  it  is  all  our  opinion 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  225 

that  if  the  Government  will  please  to  give  orders  to  the  soldiery 
to  give  us  their  assistance  on  due  application,  we  question  not 
of  giving  a  good  account  of  our  duty;  and  without  which  the 
Papists  are  so  numerous  and  so  insolent,  and  in  a  more  particular 
manner  at  this  time,  that  without  them  we  cannot  pretend  to 
do  any  considerable  service." 

The  magistrates  stated  only  their  genuine  sentiments  in  these 
communications  with  the  Castle,  for  they  left  no  stone  unturned 
to  give  effect  to  the  instructions  sent  down  by  the  high  officials  of 
the  government.  With  the  view  of  discovering  the  "  dignitaries," 
"  regulars,"  "non-juring  priests,"  and  other  papists  obnoxious  to 
the  law,  they  summoned  before  them  some  of  the  leading  Catholic 
laymen  of  the  town  and  county,  and  examined  them  regarding  their 
knowledge  of  such  persons.  The  inquiries  were  conducted  with 
the  aim  of  applying  the  recent  penal  laws,  more  especially  the  9th 
of  William  III.  (1697),  for  banishing  all  papists  exercising 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  all  regulars  of  the  popish  clergy  ; 
the  2nd  of  Anne  (1703),  chap,  vi.,  for  preventing  the  further 
growth  of  popery ;  and  the  8th  of  Anne  (1709),  chap,  iii.,  for 
"explaining  and  amending  an  act  intituled  :  An  act  for  preventing 
the  further  growth  of  popery."  By  this  last  act  the  oath  of 
abjuration  was  made  compulsory,  and  thus,  according  to  the 
graphic  language  of  Mr.  Froude  (English  in  Ireland,  Yol.  I.,  p. 
333),  "  the  last  rivet  was  driven  into  the  chain  of  the  penal  code." 

As  there  was  no  question  of  this  oath  at  the  general  registra- 
tion of  the  clergy  in  1704,  the  parish  priests  came  freely  forward 
and  complied  with  the  requirements  of  the  law ;  but  their  names 
and  residences  being  thus  ascertained  and  registered,  the  authori- 
ties now  issued  proclamation  after  proclamation  calling  on  the 
registered  parish  priests  to  come  in  again  and  take  the  oath  of 
abjuration.  The  clergy  shrank  with  horror  from  the  sacrilegious 
act  prescribed,  and  the  magistrates  made  it  their  chief  business 
to  force  compliance,  and  to  punish  the  refractory.  It  was  with 
this  object  that  Sligo  Justices  of  the  Peace  now  held  several 
courts  of  inquiry,  the  proceedings  of  which  were  duly  reported  to 
the  Castle.  In  his  searches  at  the  Record  Office,  Dublin,  the 
VOL.  i.  p 


226  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


writer  was  fortunate  enough  to  fall  in  with  these  documents  ;  and 
they  are  given  here,  in  extenso,  as  they  are  singularly  interesting 
and  furnish  a  truer  idea  than  any  narrative  account  could,  of  what 
took  place  at  the  time — almost  enabling  us  to  see  with  our  own 
eyes,  and  to  hear  with  our  own  ears  the  actual  working  of  the 
Penal  Laws.  The  first  court  of  inquiry  was  held  on  the  28th 
October,  1712,  and  the  following  is  the  record  : — 

Depositions  as  to  non-juring  Popish  Priests  celebrating 
mass  in  town  or  county,  1712. — Before  Percy  Gethin,  Wm. 
Ormsby,  Robt.  Lindsay,  and  Wm.  Smith. 

The  Depositions  of  Mr.  Thos.  Corkaran,  of  Sligoe,  and  other 
of  the  Popish  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Sligoe,  taken  before 
Percy  Gethin,  Wm.  Ormsby,  and  Robt.  Lindsay,  Esqrs.,  three  of 
her  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the  said  county,  this  28th 
day  of  October,  1712. 

Thomas  Corkaran,  of  Sligoe,  Merchant,  being  duly  sworne 
upon  the  Holy  Evangelists  and  examined,  saith  that  the  last 
time  he  heard  mass  was  about  15  days  agoe,  about  the  13th 
inst.,  and  that  the  said  mass  was  celebrated  by  one  Peter  Feighny, 
and  that  after  the  manner  used  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and  that 
the  said  Peter  Feighny  was  Registered,  but  is  a  non-juring 
Popish  Priest  of  the  parish  of  Killadoone  in  this  county,  and 
that  he  does  not  know  where  he  resides,  and  that  he  knows  of 
no  Popish  dignitarys  or  Regulars  in  the  said  county,  and 
further  this  examinant  saith  not. 

John  Mayly,  of  Sligoe,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined  saith,  that  the  last  time  he  heard  mass 
was  about  15  days  agoe,  the  13th  inst.,  and  that  the  same  was 
celebrated  by  Peter  Feighny,  and  that  after  the  manner  used  in 
the  church  of  Rome,  and  that  the  said  Peter  Feighny  was  Regis- 
tered Popish  Priest  of  the  Parish  of  Killadoon,  in  this  county, 
but  is  a  non-juror;  he  saith  also  that  he  did  hear  one  Molass 
O'Mioghan,  who  is  a  priest  in  the  County  of  Leitrim,  say  mass  in 
Sligoe  after  the  usual  manner  in  the  house  of  Patrick  French, 
about  three  weeks  agoe,  and  further,  this  examinant  saith  not. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  227 


Patrick  Lynch,  of  Sligoe,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined  saith,  that  the  last  time  he  heard  mass 
was  about  the  13th  inst.,  at  the  chappel  or  mass-house  in  Slygoe, 
and  that  it  was  Peter  Feighny,  who  is  a  Registered  Popish  Priest 
of  the  Parish  of  Killadoon,  in  this  county,  who  did  celebrate  the 
same  after  the  usual  manner,  but  that  the  said  Peter  Feighny 
is  a  non-juror,  and  he  also  saith  he  did  heare  one  Molass 
O'Mioghan,  who  is  a  Parish  Priest  in  the  county  of  Leitrim, 
say  Mass  at  widdow  French's  house  in  Sligoe,  about  three  weeks 
agoe,  and  further  this  deponent  saith  not. 

Richard  Brewin,  of  Sligoe,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined  saith,  that  the  last  time  he  heard 
mass  was  about  the  13th  inst.,  at  the  chappell  or  mass-house  in 
Sligoe,  and  that  it  was  Peter  Feighny,  who  is  Registered,  but  a 
non-juring  Popish  Priest  of  the  parish  of  Killadoon  in  this 
county,  who  did  celebrate  the  same,  and  that  he  also  saith  that 
he  heard  one  Molass  O'Mioghan,  who  is  a  priest  in  the  county  of 
Leitrim,  neare  adjoining,  say  mass  about,  three  weeks  agoe  in 
widdow  French's  house  in  Sligoe,  and  that  he  knows  of  no  digni- 
tary of  the  church  of  Rome,  or  any  Regulars  in  the  county, 
nor  of  any  Popish  schoolmasters,  tutors,  or  ushers,  and  further, 
deponent  saith  not. 

Other  depositions  before  us,  Novr.  4th,  1712. 

James  Fahy,  of  Sligoe,  Apothecary,  being  duly  sworne  upon 
the  Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined  saith,  that  the  last  time  he 
heard  mass  was  at  the  mass-house  or  chappel  neare  Sligoe, 
about  the  15th  October  last,  and  that  it  was  Peter  Feighny  who 
was  Registered  Popish  Priest  of  the  parish  of  Killadoon,  in  this 
county,  but  is  a  non-juror,  who  did  then  celebrate  the  same, 
and  that  there  were  then  present,  James  Jolly,  and  severall  other 
Popish  inhabitants  of  the  towne  of  Sligoe  at  the  said  mass,  and 
that  he  did  not  see  any  strangers  present  at  it,  neither  priest  nor 
fryar,  but  that  Denis  Kerrigan,  who  is  Registered  non-juring 
Popish  Priest  of  the  parishes  of  St.  John's  and  Calry,  in  this 
county,  was  then  present  being  his  parish  ;  he  further  saith  that 
he  heard  mass  severall  times  within  these  six  months  last  past 


228  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


from  the  said  Denis  Kerrigan  and  Peter  Feighny  in  the 
chappell  aforesaid,  and  at  Patrick  Devany's  house,  and  at  his 
own  house  in  Sligoe,  and  he  also  saith  that  he  did  hear  mass 
celebrated  at  Ballyshanny,  in  the  county  of  Donegall,  hy  one 
Turlough  McSwine,  a  reputed  Fryar  of  the  order  of  Saint 
Francis,  and  of  the  abby  of  Donegall ;  he  further  saith  that 
he  did  see  another  Fryar  in  Sligoe,  by  the  name  of  John 
McGwyr,  and  another  called  Feighney,  and  another  called 
Garret  Cullicin,  all  itynerant,  and  that  he  knoweth  not  where 
any  of  the  said  fryars  or  regulars  doe  either  'reside  or  abide  ; 
he  further  saith,  that  in  the  north  of  the  kingdom  he  knows  of 
several  regulars,  viz.,  John  Paddeene,  and  one  Father  James 
Patten,  and  one  Father  John  Gallagher,  and  he  knows  not  their 
residence,  although  he  had  frequently  seen  them  there,  and  he 
saith  he  hath  seen  no  Dignitary  of  the  church  of  Rome  that  he 
knows  off,  but  saith  that  he  has  heard  of  severally  as  of  a 
bishop,  one  McDermott,  in  the  county  of  Roscommon,  who  is 
Titular  Bishop  of  Elphin,  and  of  one  Rourke,  who  is  Titular 
Bishop  of  Killala,  and  saith  that  he  believes  that  the  said 
bishops  doe  ordaine  severall  young  priests,  but  that  he  has  seen 
none  of  them,  and  further  this  examinant  saith  not. 

Charles  Fallon,  of  Sligoe,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  the  last  time  he  heard 
Mass  was  about  the  15th  October  last  past,  and  that  severall 
Popish  inhabitants  of  the  towne  of  Sligoe  were  then  present, 
and  that  it  was  Dennis  Kerrigan,  the  Parish  Priest,  that  did 
then  celebrate  same,  and  this  examinant  further  saith  that  he 
heard  no  Mass  within  these  six  months  last  past,  but  from  the 
said  Dennis  Kerrigan  and  Peter  Feigbney,  and  that  they  did 
usually  celebrate  the  same  at  the  Chappell  or  Mass  House; 
he  further  saith  that  the  said  priests  did  use  to  be  at 
one  Morgan  McCarric's  house  in  Sligoe  before  the  Govern- 
ment Proclamation,  but  where  they  resided  since  he  knoweth 
not,  neither  does  he  know  of  any  Popish  Dignitary  or  Regular 
in  this  kingdom,  nor  of  any  Popish  school-masters,  tutors,  or 
ushers,  and  farther  this  Deponent  saith  not. 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  229 


Owsn  Devanny,  of  Sligoe,  merchant,  being  duly  sworne  upon 
the  Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  some  time 
within  a  month  he  heard  Mass  at  the  Chappell  or  Mass-house 
of  Sligoe,  elebrated  by  Peter  Feighney,  Registered  Popish  Priest, 
of  the  Parish  of  Killadoone,  in  this  county,  who  is  a  non- 
juror,  and  this  examinant  saith  that  within  these  six  months 
past  he  heard  Mass  from  Dennis  Kerrigan,  his  registered  Parish 
Priest,  who  is  also  a  non-juror,  and  this  examinant  saith  also 
that  he  knoweth  one  Father  James  Feighney,  a  Regular  of  the 
Order  of  St.  Dominick,  whom  he  heareth  is  or  is  to  be  Prior 
of  the  Convent  of  Sligoe,  and  he  saith  that  he  knows  of  no 
other  Regulars  or  Dignitarys  of  the  Church  of  Roome,  neither 
does  he  know  of  any  popish  schoolmasters,  tutors,  or  ushers  in 
this  county,  and  further  this  Deponent  saith  not. 

Matthew  Fahy,  of  Sligoe,  apothecary,  being  duly  sworne  upon 
the  Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  about  a  fortnight 
agoe,  he  did  see  Mass  celebrated  at  the  Chappell  or  Mass-house 
near  Sligoe,  by  Peter  Feighney,  non-juror,  registered  Popish 
Priest,  of  the  parish  of  Killadoon,  in  this  county,  and  that 
Owen  Devanny  and  several  other  of  the  Popish  inhabitants  of 
the  town  of  Sligo  were  then  present,  and  he  further  saith  he 
knows  of  one  Father  James  Feighney,  a  Regular,  who  did  lately 
celebrate  Mass  at  the  Mass  house,  or  Chappell,  neare  Sligoe, 
after  the  usual  manner,  and  he  saith  that  he  knows  of  no  other 
Regular  or  Dignitary  of  the  Churcb  of  Roome,  neither  does  he 
know  of  any  Popish  schoolmasters,  tutors,  or  usherst  and  farther 
this  Deponent  saith  no  t. 

Bryan  Hart,  of  Sligo,  merchant,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the 
Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  he  heard  Mass  at 
the  Mass  house,  neare  Sligoe,  about  agoe  (sic)  from  Peter 
Feighney,  and  that  he  heard  Mass  several  times  within  six 
months  last  past,  from  Dennis  Kerrigan,  the  Parish  Priest,  and 
from  one  James  Feighney,  a  Regular,  and  this  examinant  also 
saith  that  being  at  the  funerall  of  one  Mr.  Conmy,  about  twelve 
miles  from  Sligoe,  in  the  said  county,  about  the  beginning  of 
August  last,  that  he  heard  several  Masses  from  three  or  four 


230  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


priests  that  he  knows  not,  and  farther  saith,  that  he  heard  and 
saw  at  the  funerall  one  McDermott,  reputed  to  be  Titular  Bishop 
of  Elphin,  and  this  examinant  saith  that  he  has  heard  that  the 
said  Bishop  has  been  in  this  kingdom  five  years,  but  that  he 
knotcs  not  his  place  of  abode,  and  farther  this  Deponent  saith  not 

Peter  Kelly,  of  Sligoe,  hatter,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the 
Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  tbat  the  last  Mass  he 
heard  was  at  Bundrowes,  in  the  county  of  Donegal!,  neare 
adjoining  to  this  county,  and  that  the  same  was  celebrated  by 

Father  Patrick   Sweeney,   Priest  of  the  Parish  of  ,  in 

the  said  county,  and  he  also  saith  he  heard  Mass  about  a 
fortnight  ago  at  the  Mass-house  from  Peter  Feighney,  and  he 
further  saith,  that  he  heard  Mass  from  one  James  Feighney,  a 
Regular,  lately  in  the  Mass-house  of  Sligoe,  and  he  believes 
the  said  James  to  be  a  Fryar,  because  he  begged  of  him,  and 
farther  this  Deponent  saith  not. 

Patrick  Devanny,  of  Sligoe,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  the  Llast  Mass  he  heard 
was  at  Widdow  French's  house,  in  Sligoe,  from  one  Molass 
O'Mioghan,  a  Parish  Priest,  in  the  county  of  Leitrim,  neare 
adjacent,  and  that  he  heard  Mass  severall  times  within  these  six 
months  from  Dennis  Kerrigan,  the  non-juring  Parish  Priest,. 
and  from  Peter  Feighney,  the  non-juring  Popish  Priest  of  the 
Parish  of  Killadoone,  in  this  county,  and  also  from  James 
Feighney,  a  Regular,  and  farther  this  Deponent  saith  not. 

Ju  co.  nobis,  PERCY  GETHIN. 

W.  ORMSBY. 
ROBERT  LINDSAY. 

The  foregoing  depositions  did  not  advance  much  the  chief 
object  of  the  magistrates,  which  was  to  obtain  such  information 
as  would  lead  to  the  arrest  and  punishment  of  the  incriminated 
persons.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  witnesses  are  clear  and 
explicit  enough  as  to  the  saying  of  Masses,  though  they  know 
nothing  of  the  address  of  the  non-juring  priests,  the  dignitaries, 
the  regulars,  the  popish  schoolmasters,  or  ushers.  If  they  can 
tell  that,  for  instance,  the  Rev.  Denis  Kerrigan,  the  registered 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  231 


popish  priest  of  St.  John's  and  Calry,  and  Reverend  Peter 
Feighney,  resided  "  at  Morgan  McCarrick's  house  in  Sligo," 
the  information  is  found  to  he  of  no  use,  as  it  refers  to  a  period 
prior  to  the  issue  of  the  Government  Proclamation,  while  the 
deponents  know  nothing  of  the  residence  of  the  priests  since  that 
time,  having,  of  course,  taken  good  care  to  remain  ignorant  of  the 
dangerous  secret.  In  this  way  the  witnesses  might,  with  a  clear 
conscience,  give  a  rather  wide  berth  to  the  myrmidons  of  the  law. 
The  preceding  depositions,  which  came  all  from  townspeople, 
were  taken  on  the  28th  of  October,  and  the  4th  November; 
and  on  the  29th  October  and  llth  November  country  witnesses 
were  examined  and  deposed  as  follows  : — 

The  Depositions  of  Teig  McDonnagh,  of  Ballyraghahoe, 
and  others,  taken  before  us,  William  Ormsby  and  William 
Smith,  Esq.,  two  of  her  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the 
county,  this  29th  day  of  October,  1712. 

Teige  HcDonnagh  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy  Evan- 
gelists, and  examined,  saitb,  that  he  heard  Mass  last  Sunday, 
was  sennight,  at  Castle  Corragh,  in  the  parish  of  Shancough, 
in  this  county,  and  that  the  same  was  celebrated  by  one  Bryan 
McDermott  Roe,  alias  John  Smith,  a  priest  lately  come  into 
the  county,  in  the  place  of  Peter  Feighney  (as  this  Deponent 
is  informed)  who  was  registered  popish  priest,  of  the  parish  of 
Killadoon,  in  this  county,  and  since  removed  to  Sligoe,  and 
further  this  Deponent  saith,  that  the  said  Bryan  McDermott 
Hoe  lives  near  Slievegurmoyle,  in  the  barony  of  Tyrerrill,  and 
further  this  Deponent  saitb,  that  the  said  Peter  Feighney  cele- 
brated Mass  in  the  parish  of  Shancough  yesterday,  being  the 
28th  inst.,  and  farther  he  also  saith  that  he  did  see  one 
Thomas  Rutledge,  a  reputed  fryar,  and  knows  no  place  of  resi- 
dence he  has,  and  this  Deponent  also  saith  that  he  did  see  one 
Rourke  whom  he  hears  is  Titular  Bishop  of  Killala. 

Bryan  McDonnagh,  of  Behy,  being  duly  sworn  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  he  did  hear  Mass  cele- 
brated on  Sunday  last  at  Tawnagh,  in  the  parish  of  Kill 


232  HISTORY    OF  SLTGO. 


McAllen,  by  Matthew  Brehun,  registered  (non-juring)  popish 
priest  of  the  parish  of  Tawnah,  in  this  county,  and  that  this 
Deponent  did  also  heare  Teige  Davey  celebrate  Mass  in  the 
parish  of  Ballysadare,  in  this  county,  at  Carrickbanaghar,  the 
said  Teige  Davey  being  registered  non-juring  popish  priest  cf 
Kittashalva  in  the  said  county,  and  this  examinant  farther  saith 
that  he  heard  there  are  several  fryars  in  the  country,  but  that  he 
neither  knows  them  nor  their  place  of  abode. 

William  BourJce  of  Doonamurray  being  duly  sworne  upon 
the  Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined,  saith,  that  on  Sunday  last 
was  sennight  he  heard  Mass  at  Castlecarragh,  in  the  parish  of 
Kill  McTrany,  by  one  Bryan  McDermott  Roe,  alias  Smith,  and 
saith  that  the  said  McDermott  Roe  disguises  his  name  to  cloake 
his  Power  in  the  church ;  this  Deponent  also  saith  that  he 
heard  one  Bryan  Higgins  say  Mass  within  the  space  of  two 
months  in  the  parish  of  Killross ;  and  that  the  said  Bryan 
Higgins  dwells  at  Dunmore  in  the  parish  of  Ballysummahan, 
being  Registered  non-juring  Popish  Priest  of  the  said  parish, 
in  this  county ;  this  Deponent  also  saith  he  heard  one  Denis 
McDermott  celebrate  Mass  in  the  parish  of  Kill  McTrany,  in  this 
county,  the  said  Denis  McDermott  being  registered  non-juring 
Popish  Priest  of  the  parishes  of  Kill  McTrany  and  Shancough, 
in  the  said  county,  and  this  Deponent  also  saith  that  he  saw  one 
Garrett  Cullican,  a  fryar,  proceed  at  Guievagh,  in  said  parish  of 
Kill  McTrany  aforesaid,  and  this  Deponent  saith  also  that  he 
did  see  one  Gallagher,  an  Ittenerant  fryar,  at  Longa,  in  the 
parish  of  Ballysummahan  aforesaid,  and  this  Deponent  saith 
also  he  did  see  one  Thomas  Rutledge,  a  fryar,  and  heard  him 
say  mass  at  Longa  aforesaid,  in  the  parish  aforesaid,  and  this 
Deponent  saith  he  did  see  one  Rourke,  who  is  reputed  to  be 
Bishop  of  Killala,  travelling  on  the  roads  in  the  barony  of  Corran, 
and  this  Deponent  further  saith,  he  heard  that  there  was  one 
McDermott,  Bishop  of  Elphin,  some  time  ago  in  the  upper  part 
of  the  Barony  of  Tirerrill,  in  this  county. 
Ju  co.  nobis. 

W.  ORMSBY. 

WM.  SMITH. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  233 


The  Depositions  of  severall  persons  taken 


Commitatus 
Sligoe. 


before  us  Percy  Gethin  and  Robert  Lindsay, 
Esqs.,  Two  of  her  Majesty's  Justices  of  the 
Peace  for  the  said  county,  this  llth  day  of 
Nov.,  1712. 


Cor  mock  McGlone,  of  Carrowmore,  in  the  parish  of  Killas- 
pukbrone,  in  the  Barony  of  Carbury,  in  the  said  county, 
yeoman,  who  being  duly  sworn  upon  the  Holy  Evangelists, 
and  examined  saith,  that  in  his  roade  coming  from  Dublin 
homewards,  about  eight  days  ago  he  heard  Mass  said  in  a  waste 
house  at  Kilcock,  and  that  the  persons  there  present  were  all 
strangers  to  him  except  Stephen  Crane  of  Sligoe,  and  those  of 
his  company  who  were  then  coming  from  Dublin  with  him, 
and  that  he  did  not  know  the  priest  that  did  celebrate  the 
said  Mass,  and  further  this  examinant  saith  he  heard  Mass 
at  Drynaghan  in  the  parish  of  Killaspukbrone,  aforesaid,  from 
one  McDonnah  who  was  a  young  priest,  and  that  it  was  about 
two  months  agoe,  and  that  he  believes  he  may  be  a  young 
fryar  because  he  did  beg  money,  and  that  he  knows  of  no 
Popish  Dignitary  nor  of  any  popish  schoolmaster,  tutor 
or  usher,  and  further  this  examinant  saith  not. 

Paul  Cunigham,  of  Drynaghan,  in  the  parish  of  Killaspuk- 
brone, in  the  said  county,  yeoman,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the 
Holy  Evangelists,  and  examined  saith,  that  he  heard  Mass  said 
in  the  fields  at  Drynahan  aforesaid,  about  two  months  ago,  from 

one  who  was  a  stranger,  that  said  he  was ,  and  that  he  was 

a  young  priest,  and  this  examinant  was  then  told  his  name  was 
McDonnah,  and  he  also  saith  that  he  heard  Mass  about  two 
months  agoe  in  the  said  parish,  from  one  John  McDonnah, 
non-juring  Registered  popish  priest  of  the  parishes  of  Kill 
McOwen  and  Killaspukbrone,  in  this  county,  and  this  Deponent 
saith,  that  he  knows  of  no  Popish  Bishop  or  Dignitary,  nor  of 
any  popish  schoolmasters,  tutors,  or  ushers,  in  this  county 
and  further  this  examinant  saith  not. 


234  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


William  Ward,  of  Farrinacarny,  in  the  barony  of  Carbury, 
in  the  said  county,  yeornan,  being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy 
Evangelists  and  examined,  saith,  that  about  three  weeks  agoe 
he  heard  Mass  at  Lysidyll,  in  the  parish  of  Drumcliefe,  in 
this  county,  from  Cormock  Feeny,  who  is  Registered  non-juring 
Popish  priest  of  the  said  parish,  and  that  there  were  no 
strangers  present,  but  one  Cassidy,  who  is  no  clergyman ;  and 
this  examinant  also  saith  that  about  June  last  he  heard  Mass 
in  the  said  parish,  from  one  that  he  is  informed  is  Richard 
Doherty,  a  registered  Popish  Priest  about  Mullingar,  and 
further  the  examinant  saith  not. 

Hugh  Gallagher,  of  Farrinacarny,  in  the  said  county,  yeoman 
being  duly  sworne  upon  the  Holy  Evangelists  and  examined, 
saith,  that  he  heard  Mass  about  three  weeks  agoe  at  Lyssidyll, 
in  the  parish  of  Drumcliefe,  in  the  said  county  from  Cormock 
Feeny,  non-juring  popish  Registered  priest  of  the  said  parish, 
and  that  there  were  no  strangers  then  there  but  one  Cassidy, 
who  was  no  clergyman,  and  this  examinant  also  saith  that  he 
heard  Mass  as  often  as  he  could  from  the  said  Cormock  Feeny, 
who  is  his  non-juring  parish  priest,  and  this  examinant  also 
saith,  that  he  did  see  one  MacSwyne,  in  the  parish  of  Augham- 
lish,  in  this  county,  who  is  said  to  be  a  fryar,  and  this  examinant 
saith,  that  he  is  informed  that  there  are  young  clergymen 
made,  but  not  any  more,  and  this  examinant  saith,  that  he  has 
heard  of  one  Manus  O'Hara,  a  popish  schoolmaster,  but 
knows  not  now  where  he  resides  or  dwells,  and  further  this  ex- 
aminant saith  not. 

PERCY  GETHIN. 

ROBERT  LINDSAY. 
Jur.  co.  nobis, 
llth  Nov.,  1712. 

The  country  witnesses,  it  will  be  observed,  are  as  ignorant 
about  the  residences  of  the  incriminated  persons  as  those  of  the 
town.  Though  Bryan  McDonogh,  of  Behy,  has  heard  that 
there  are  several  friars  in  the  country,  he  "  neither  knows  them 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  235 


nor  their  places  of  abode  ;"  and  all  William  Bourke,  of  Doona- 
mnrray,  can  tell  of  the  whereabouts  of  Doctor  O'Rorke  and 
Doctor  McDermot,  respectively  bishops  of  Killala  and  Elphin, 
is,  that  he  saw  the  former  travelling  on  the  roads  in  the  barony 
of  Corran — a  rather  vague  indication — and  that  he  heard  that 
the  latter  was  some  time  ago  in  the  upper  part  of  the  barony 
of  Tirerrill — an  information  on  which  no  sensible  magistrate 
could  think  for  a  moment  of  taking  action.  If  the  same 
deponent  appears  to  be  somewhat  more  definite  regarding  the 
place  of  abode  of  Reverend  Bryan  Higgins,  no  doubt  he  took 
the  precaution  of  putting  the  priest  on  his  guard,  in  order  that 
he  would  not  be  at  home  in  case  the  agents  of  the  law  favoured 
Dunmore  with  a  call. 

Some  facts  worth  noting  may  be  gathered  from  these 
interesting  depositions — first,  that  priests  sometimes  laid  aside 
their  real  names  and  assumed  others,  in  order  the  better  to 
bafHe  their  persecutors.  Thus  Reverend  Bryan  McDermot  Roe 
dropped  his  suspicious  Celtic  patronymic,  and  took  instead  the 
simple  sounding  Saxon  name  of  Smith.  Second,  that  Mass  used 
to  be  said  in  all  sorts  of  places  ;  in  private  houses,  in  waste  houses, 
in  the  open  fields,  as  at  Drynaghan,  and,  at  least  before  the  Pro- 
clamation, in  the  ruins  of  the  old  Abbey.  Third,  that  there  was 
hardly  any  fixed  time  for  the  celebration  of  Mass — Thomas 
Corcoran  and  others  hearing  Mass  "  about  fifteen  days  ago ;" 
James  Fahy,  apothecary,  "several  times  within  the  past  six 
months;"  William  Ward  and  Hugh  Gallagher,  of  Carney, 
"  about  three  weeks  ago."  And  the  place  was  as  unsettled  as 
the  time,  the  priest  officiating  now  in  one  spot  and  again  in 
another,  the  two  spots  being  perhaps  far  distant  from  one 
another,  as  Kilshalvey  and  Carrickbanaghar,  in  which  Reverend 
Teige  Davy  successively  celebrated.  The  rule  of  these  celebra- 
tions would  seem  to  be  that  the  priest  selected  a  time  and 
place  when  and  where  he  expected  to  be  secure,  and  communi- 
cated the  selection  through  trusty  messengers  to  the  neigh- 
bouring Catholics,  who  at  the  appointed  time  proceeded  as 
quietly  as  they  could  to  the  rendezvous.  On  this  principle  the 


236  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


people  seldom  continued  to  frequent  the  same  pla.ce  for  any 
length  of  time,  but  moved  about  as  considerations  of  safety 
and  convenience  required,  like  Bryan  McDonogh  of  Behy, 
who  heard  Mass  now  at  Tawnagh,  and  next  time  at  Carrick- 
banaghar,  in  the  parish  of  Bally sadare.  By  often  shifting  their 
stations  in  this  way  they  eluded  the  plans  of  the  local  authorities, 
who  kept  constantly  writing  explanations  and  excuses  to  the 
Castle. 

The  same  professions  of  zeal,  the  same  apology  for  absence 
of  results,  the  same  application  for  military  aid,  made  so  often 
before,  were  renewed  on  the  29th  October,  1714,  on  the  part  of 
the  magistrates,  by  the  High  Sheriff,  William  Smith,  who  in 
reply  to  a  communication  from  Dublin  Castle  inquiring  "  what 
Popish  priests  or  other  persons  were  under  sentence  of  trans- 
portation in  Sligo  gaol,"  observes,  "  There  never  were  any  com- 
mitted, nor  under  that  sentence  during  my  time ;  the  magis- 
trates here  have  been  zealous  and  active  in  putting  the  law  in 
execution  against  them,  but  the  Papists  are  so  numerous  in 
this  country  that  without  the  assistance  of  the  army  there  is  no 
good  to  be  done." 

This  letter,  and  the  communication  from  the  Castle,  to  which 
it  is  an  answer,  were  written  two  months  after  the  death  of 
Anne,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  persecution  no  way 
slackened  in  the  county  Sligo  on  her  decease.  Indeed  upon  the 
accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  there  was  rather  an  increase 
than  a  decline  of  persecution  at  Sligo,  the  cause  or  pretext 
being  fear  of  the  Pretender.  John  de  Butte  was  provost  of 
Sligo  at  that  time,  and  consequently,  the  chief  local  authority ; 
and  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Lords 
Justices,  describing  the  measures  he  had  taken  in  execution  of 
their  Lordships'  instructions,  contains  so  many  interesting  and 
authentic  particulars  of  the  treatment  to  which  the  Catholics 
of  the  town  were  subjected,  that  the  reader  will  be  glad  to 
peruse  the  ipsissima  verba  for  himself : — 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  23' 


"Sligo,  August  4th,  1715. 

"  ID  obedience  to  their  Excellencies,  the  Lords  Justices,  pro- 
clamation, which  was  delivered  to  me  by  the  high  sheriff  of 
this  county,  for  securing  all  horses,  arms,  armour,  and  ammuni- 
tion in  Papist,  and  disaffected  hands,  and  for  tendering  the 
oath  to  them,  I  did  immediately  go  with  the  high  sheriff, 
Pierce  Gethen,  Esq.,  and  George  Ormsby,  Esq.,  to  search  all 
suspected  places  within  the  borough,  and  found  one  caske  of 
gunpowder  in  the  hands  of  one  Charles  Ffallon,  a  Papist  who 
refused  to  take  the  oath  of  abjuration  as  did  three  others  of  the 
beste  sort  of  Papists  of  this  town  for  ivhich  I  sent  them  to  his 
Majesty's  Gaole,  as  I  did  also  another  Papist,  who  harboured 
two  non-juring  Popish  Priests,  and  had  one  of  them  in  bed 
in  his  oivn  house  when  we  went  to  search.  I  have  ordered  a 
good  guard  of  thirty  stanch  Protestants  to  duty  in  this  burough 
in  order  to  assist  the  civil  magistrates,  and  preserve  the  public 
peace  if  occasion  be,  and  have  secured  all  the  Papists'  horses 
in  the  burough.  The  Justices  of  the  Peace  are  very  active  and 
diligent  throughout  the  whole  country,  and  particularly  the 
High  Sheriff,  Pierce  Gethen,  Esq.,  George  Ormsby,  Esq.,  and 
Robert  Lindsay,  Esq.,  who  went  themselves  in  person  to 
summon  and  seize  all  according  to  their  Excellencies  order,  and 
am  sure  will  give  the  Government  a  very  satisfactory  account 
of  their  proceedings.  I  thought  it  my  indispencible  duty  to  lett 
you  know  what  is  done  in  this  Burrough  in  order  to  their 
Excellencies  command. 

"Your  most  humble  servant, 

«  JOHN  DE  BUTT,  Provost." 

The  same  real  or  pretended  concern  about  the  Pretender  con- 
tinued to  trouble  those  in  authority  at  Sligo  ;  and,  in  1729, 
Owen  Wynne,  Brigadier-General,  now  the  foremost  man  in  the 
borough,  if  not  in  the  county,  held  an  investigation  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  examined  several  witnesses,  much  in  the  same  way  as 
suspected  persons  were  recently  examined  in  preliminary 
inquiries  under  the  Crimes  Act.  With  one  exception,  all  the 


238  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


witnesses  averred  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the  matter ;  and 
the  exception  in  question,  one  Edward  Martin,  while  he 
"  suspected  a  townsman  named  Thady  Hart,"  of  enlisting  for 
the  Pretender,  was  unable  to  prove  any  overt  acts,  though  so 
eager  to  do  so,  that  he  communicated  to  the  General  a  confiden- 
tial letter  he  had  received  from  Hart.  It  came  out  in  these  pro- 
ceedings that  "  shipping  goods  "  was  the  cant  phrase  for  despatch- 
ing recruits  to  the  Pretender.  In  Mr.  Wynne's  report  to  the 
Castle,  he  states  his  belief,  that  Thady  Hart,  and  any  of  his 
recruits,  that  had  not  been  already  shipped,  might  be  found  at 
the  "  Crown  in  Church-street." 

We  find  the  infamous  Discovery  clause  of  Anne's  second 
Act,  To  prevent  the  further  growth  of  Popery,  in  full  opera- 
tion in  this  district.  It  is  often  said  that,  though  this  and 
similar  atrocious  enactments  may  certainly  be  found  on  the 
Statute  book,  they  were  allowed  to  sleep  or  to  remain  a  dead 
letter ;  but  it  is  clear  from  what  has  been  already  said,  and 
from  the  legal  records  of  the  country,  that  they  were  enforced 
as  often  as  they  safely  could  be. 

The  first  discoverer  under  the  act,  in  the  county  Sligo,  was 
a  wretch  named  Jeremiah  Fury,  a  not  inappropriate  name  for 
so  malevolent  a  being.  Finding  Teige  Reagh  Kelly,  a  Catholic 
of  Tireragh,  holding,  on  lease,  a  valuable  farm  under  William 
Griffith,  Fury  files  a  bill  on  the  28th  August,  1754,  against  both 
Griffith  and  Kelly ;  and  though  the  landlord,  Griffith,  who  was 
a  man  of  standing  and  influence  in  the  county,  used  all  the 
means,  legal  and  other,  which  he  could  to  defend  the  case,  a 
decree  for  possession  was  granted  on  the  17th  April,  1758,  in 
the  following  terms  :— "  That  the  Plaintiff,  as  the  first  real  Pro- 
testant discoverer  under  the  acts  to  prevent  the  further 
growth  of  Popery,  shall  have  the  full  benefit  of  the  lease  of 
the  castle  quarter  of  Bunina,  being  parcel  of  the  lands  of 
Ballinphull,  in  the  county  of  Sligoe,  and  also  the  covenants 
for  renewal  for  ever  in  said  lease  contained,  executed  by 
Humphrey  Griffiths,  and  that  an  injunction  shall  forthwith 
issue  directed  to  the  sheriff  of  the  county  Sligo,  to  put  the 


HISTORY   OF   SILGO.  239 


Plaintiff  into  the  possession  of  said  premises."  That  property 
worth  about  £120  a  year,  is  still  in  the  possession  of  Jeremiah 
Fury's  descendants. 

A  few  years  later,  in  1761,  another  villain  received  his  decree 
for  possession  of  various  lands  in  and  around  Glaneask,  in  the 
barony  of  Leyney,  the  discoverer  and  his  victim  being  each  of 
the  name  of  Fallen. 

Another  local  instance  of  this  iniquitous  though  legal  spolia- 
tion of  Catholics  may  be  mentioned  here.  It  was  not  precisely 
a  case  of  discovery,  though  one  of  kindred,  and  perhaps,  still 
deeper  infamy.  It  was  the  violation  of  the  sacred  duties  of 
trusteeship,  for  the  purpose  of  robbing  the  innocent  and  con- 
fiding persons  who  delivered  the  trust.  The  sufferers  in  this 
case  were  Charles  Hart  and  his  brother,  Right  Reverend  John 
Hart,  bishop  of  Achonry.  To  save  their  estate  of  Cloonamahon, 
which  they  could  not  themselves  retain  without  taking  the  oath 
of  abjuration,  they  conveyed  the  property  in  due  form,  to 
Laurence  Bettridge,  a  Protestant  neighbour  and  intimate  of 
theirs,  who  undertook  and  engaged  to  protect  and  administer 
it  for  them;  but  this  vile  hypocrite  had  hardly  got  formal 
possession,  when  he  cast  out  the  Harts  on  the  highway,  where 
they  must  have  perished  of  cold  and  hunger,  had  not  a  good 
Samaritan,  one  of  the  Annaghmore  O'Haras,  given  them  a 
cottage  and  some  land  at  Annaghbeg,  where  the  bishop,  whose 
hospitality  at  Cloonamahon  had  been  celebrated  in  song  by 
Carolan,  was  obliged  to  depend,  through  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  for  his  daily  bread,  on  the  charity  of  the  neighbours. 

Laurence  Bettridge  was  the  black  sheep  of  the  Protestant 
trustees  of  that  period,  for  it  is  well  known  that  those  who 
undertook  the  trusteeship  of  the  Catholic  property  performed 
the  duties  of  the  trust  with  singular  fidelity  and  honour.  On  this 
subject  Mr.  Froude,  writes  :  "  Many  Catholic  families  retained 
their  properties  without  sacrificing  their  creed,  by  conveying 
them  to  a  Protestant  kinsman  or  neighbour.  The  terms  of  the 
statute  were  so  stringent  that  they  were  obliged  to  trust  entirely 
to  honour  and  good  faith  ;  yet,  in  no  known  instance,  was  their 


240  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


confidence  abused."  The  historian  had  not  heard  of  the  case 
of  Laurence  Bettridge  and  Charles  Hart;  and  county  Sligo 
people  must  regret  that  the  disgrace  of  supplying  the  one 
"  known  instance  "  of  violation  of  Protestant  trusteeship,  lies 
on  their  county. 

The  reader  has,  in  this  chapter,  an  authentic  and  suggestive 
specimen  of  the  Penal  Code,  as  enforced  in  the  county,  in  the 
early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

An  anecdote  connected  with  the  Nugents  of  Westmeatb, 
who  had  large  possessions  in  the  county  Sligo,  may  he  added,  as 
it  brings  out  well  the  demoralizing  operations  of  the  code. 
Owing  to  some  after-dinner  altercation  between  Christopher 
Nugent  and  his  son  Lewellyn,  or  Lally,  the  latter  threatened  to 
have  his  revenge ;  and  mounting  horse  on  the  day  after  the 
quarrel,  set  off  for  Dublin' without  letting  any  one  know  what  was 
bringing  him  there.  The  father,  divining  that  the  son's  object 
was  to  conform  to  the  State  religion,  and  thus  gain  the  family 
estate,  took  horse  himself,  and,  travelling  by  a  shorter  road, 
reached  the  city  before  the  son,  and,  having  arrived  in  the 
capital,  lost  no  time  in  proceeding  to  Christ  Church,  and  going 
through  the  ceremony  or  process  of  abjuration.  Having  com- 
pleted the  act  of  apostacy  he  met,  as  he  was  leaving  the 
church,  the  son  coming  in  to  conform,  and  to  humiliate  him 
for  his  defeat  in  the  race  of  infamy,  accosted  him  with  the 
cynical  jeer,  "  Lally,  you  are  late !"  Such  was  family  virtue 
as  developed  by  the  an ti- Catholic  laws  of  the  time. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  ABBEY. 

RESUMING  now,  from  a  preceding  page  (81,)  our  account  of  the 
Abbey,  or  rather  the  convent,  of  Sligo — for  convent  is  the  correct 
designation  of  a  Dominican  monastery — the  building  was 
burned  down  in  the  year  1414.*  Formidable  as  fire  often 
proves  even  in  this  age  of  fire  engines  and  fire  brigades,  it  was 
incomparably  more  destructive  in  the  past,  when  no  such  means 
of  coping  with  the  element  existed,  and  when  the  materials  of 
houses  and  other  structures  were  much  more  combustible.  The 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  in  almost  every  page,  records  the 
burning  of  buildings,  public  and  private,  civil  and  ecclesiastical ; 
the  fire  resulting  sometimes  from  lightning,  as  happened  at 
Lough  Ce  ;t  not  unfrequently  from  accident,  as  in  the  case 
under  consideration,  but  chiefly  from  the  deliberate  act  of  man, 
who  in  former  ages  wrought  almost  as  much  mischief  with  the 
torch  as  with  the  sword.  That  this  part  of  the  country  had  no 
exemption  from  the  visitation,  we  may  infer  from  the  facts  that 
the  Convent  of  Athleathan,  built  in  1252,  the  year  in  which 
Sligo  was  built,  was  burned  down  in  1254  ;J  that  the  monastery 
of  Church  Island,  in  Lough  Gill,  was  burned  in  1416,  two  years 
after  that  of  Sligo ;  that  the  church  of  Kilronan,  erected  in 
1239,  was  reduced  to  ashes  in  1240;  and  that  the  noble  pile  of 


*  The  Monastery  of  Sligo  was  burned  by  a  candle  in  the  spring  of  this  year. 
— Four  Masters,  A.D.  1414. 

t  The  Rock  of  Lough  Key  was  burned  by  lightning.  Duvesa,  daughter  of 
O'Heyne,  and  wife  of  Conor  MacDermot,  Lord  of  Moylung,  with  seven 
hundred  (or  seven  score)  others,  or  more,  both  men  and  women,  were  drowned 
or  burned  in  it  in  the  course  of  one  hour. — Four  Masters,  A.D.  1187. 

J  The  Dominican  Monastery  of  Ath-leathan  was  totally  destroyed  by  fire — 
Four  Masters,  sub  an. 

VOL   I.  Q 


242  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Creevalea,  constructed  at  enormous  expense  in  1508,  succumbed 
to  the  flames  in  1536,  a  few  years  after  its  erection.*  And  the 
evil  was  not  confined  to  Ireland ;  for  Fuller,  in  his  Church 
History,  states  that  there  was  scarcely  a  great  ahbey  in  England 
which  had  not  been  at  least  once  burned  down  by  lightning. 

Though  the  town  of  Sligo  was  burned  down  at  least  five 
different  times— in  1257,  1270,  1383, 1396,  and  1398— between 
the  year  1252,  when  the  convent  was  erected,  and  1414  when 
it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  it  is  no  where  stated  that  the  religious 
house  suffered  on  any  of  these  occasions ;  and  as  it  is  very 
likely  that  there  would  have  been  special  mention  of  the 
occurrence,  had  it  happened,  we  may  fairly  infer  that  the 
monastery  escaped  the  flames  which  destroyed  the  other 
structures  of  the  place. 

When  it  fell,  in  1414,  there  was  no  time  lost  in  restoring  it. 
The  Prior  at  the  time  was  Bryan  MacDonogh,  son  of  Dermod 
MacDonogh,  Tanist  of  Tirerrill,  and  member  of  the  great  family 
of  that  name,  settled  at  Collooney.  It  was  fortunate  to  have 
such  a  man  in  office  then;  for  being  connected  by  kindred  or 
marriage  with  most  of  the  great  families  of  Lower  Cannaught — 
the  MacDonoghs,  the  O'Connors,  the  O'Rorkes,  the  O'Dowds, 
he  had  more  local  influence  than  others  could  command.  It 
is  likely,  too,  he  had  private  means,  which,  as  he  had  given  up 
his  station  in  the  world  for  the  love  of  God,  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  devote  from  the  same  motive  to  the  re-erection  of 
the  monastery.  With  such  advantages  he  must  have  obtained 
much  aid  in  the  district  towards  the  great  work  in  hand ;  but 
as  the  undertaking  was  so  weighty  and  expensive  that  he  could 
not,  with  all  his  exertions  and  influence,  secure  means  enough 

*  For  a  graphic  history  of  Creevalea,  and  the  other  Franciscan  Monasteries 
of  Ireland,  see  Father  Meehan's  charming  book,  "The  Franciscan  Monasteries 
and  the  Irish  Hierarchy  in  the  I7th  Century."  And  having  mentioned  Father 
Meehan's  name,  one  cannot  help  adding  that  this  gifted  priest  has  shed  more 
light  on  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  Ireland  in  the  seventeenth 
century  than  any  other  writer,  living  or  dead,  that  could  be  named.  It  is  hard 
to  decide  which  we  should  admire  more — the  exhaustive  research,  or  the 
literary  finish,  of  his  numerous  works. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  243 


of  himself  in  Ireland  for  its  accomplishment,  he  solicited  the 
co-operation  of  the  Pope  of  the  day,  John  XXIII. 

It  so  happened  that  John  was  then  at  Constance,  presiding 
over  the  Council  assembled  there,  and  though  he  was  in  a  very 
critical  situation  at  the  moment,  a  situation  from  which  he  tried 
to  free  himself,  two  months  later,  by  escaping  from  the  city, 
disguised  as  a  groom,  he  still  found  means  to  send  the  Prior 
the  following  apostolic  letters  : — 

"John,  Bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to  all  the  faith- 
ful of  Christ,  who  shall  see  these  letters,  health  and  apostolic 
benediction. 

«>•••  ••• 

"  Since  then,  as  we  have  been  informed,  the  church  and  con- 
vent of  the  Friars  Preachers  at  Sligo,  in  the  Diocese  of  Elphiu, 
where,  it  is  stated,  twenty  friars  devoted  themselves  to  the 
service  of  God,  have  been  recently  burned  down,  and  the  Prior 
and  some  friars  of  the  Order  desire  to  restore  the  same,  in  a 
style  entailing  great  outlay,  which  they  have  no  means  them- 
selves of  meeting,  we,  who  are  anxious  that  the  church  itself 
be  duly  honoured,  and  that  both  church  and  convent  be 
restored,  confiding  in  the  mercy  of  the  Almighty  God.  and  the 
authority  of  his  apostles,  Peter  and  Paul,  do  hereby  grant,  to 
such  persons  as  shall  devoutly  visit  the  church  on  the  festival 
of  the  Assumption  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary,  and  that  of 
Saint  Patrick,  and  contribute  towards  its  restoration,  an  indul- 
gence of  ten  years  and  as  many  quarantines  (provided  they  be 
truly  sorry  for  their  sins,  and  have  rightly  confessed  the  same), 
in  order  that  the  faithful  may  be  the  more  willing  to  betake 
themselves  to  the  church,  and  have  a  hand  in  its  restoration, 
when  they  know  the  grace  and  indulgence  they  may  thus 
obtain.  We  will,  however,  that  these  our  letters  have  no  effect 
if,  mayhap,  we  should  have  already  granted  any  indulgence, 
either  in  perpetuity  or  for  a  fixed  time  not  yet  fully  expired,  to 
persons  visiting  the  church,  or  aiding  it  with  their  alms. — Given 
at  Constance  on  the  sixteenth  of  the  Kalends  of  February  (17th 
January)  and  fifth  of  our  Pontificate  (1415)." 


244  HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


Notwithstanding  the  divisions  which  prevailed  in  Christen- 
dom at  this  period,  for  it  was  the  time  of  the  great  schism  of 
the  West,  there  can  be  no  douht  that  the  foregoing  document 
procured  abundant  alms  for  the  convent,  and  brought  crowds  of 
Pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  Ireland,  on  the  feasts  of  the  Assump- 
tion and  St. Patrick,  to  the  church,  in  order  to  gain  the  indulgence. 

There  is  nothing  very  definite  known  about  local  benefactors. 
The  Four  Masters  mention  none  except  the  Prior,  Bryan 
MacDonogh ;  but  the  names  of  one  or  two  more  are  found  in 
other  writers.  De  Burgo  informs  us  that  the  O'Connor  of  the 
day  was  the  chief  contributor,  but  he  gives  no  authority  for  the 
statement,  unless  he  refers,  which  is  doubtful,  to  O'Heyne,  who 
makes  O'Connor  the  original  founder  of  the  abbey,  and  who, 
being  wrong  in  this  important  point,  is  entitled  to  little  credit 
in  regard  to  the  minor  matter.  Bryan,  the  son  of  Donnell 
O'Connor,  was  Lord  of  Sligo  at  this  time.  During  his  long 
rule  of  thirty-seven  years  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  war ; 
and  though  we  have  repeated  mention  in  the  Annals  of  the 
Four  Masters  of  his  military  movements,  there  is  no  allusion  to 
any  benefaction  of  his  to  the  convent.  He  may,  however, 
notwithstanding  this  silence,  have  had  a  hand  in  the  good  work. 
In  any  case  it  is  not  from  him  but  from  his  brother,  Owen,  the 
O'Connors  Sligo  descend. 

The  name  of  Pierce  O'Timony  is  given  as  that  of  another 
special  benefactor,  in  the  Hibernia  Dominicana,  which  also 
states,  that  he  was  a  man  of  high  family,  great  wealth,  and 
singular  virtue,  and  that  his  statue  was  set  up  by  the  Domini- 
cans in  the  cloister  of  the  convent,  as  a  lasting  memorial  of 
their  gratitude.  Of  this  generous  man  there  is  nothing  else 
handed  down,  either  in  writing,  or  tradition,  nor  are  his  descend- 
ants known,  if  he  has  left  any.  The  statue  too  has  disappeared, 
and  has  left  no  trace,  or  fragment  behind,  though  De  Burgo 
informs  us,  that  it  was  to  be  seen  in  the  cloister  in  his  own  day. 

Between  the  Pope  and  local  benefactors  the  convent  was 
restored  in  a  style  of  great  magnificence.  It  was  apparently  the 
finest  conventual  building  in  Ireland  ;  and  the  historian  of  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  245 


Irish  Dominicans,  while  admitting,  that  the  remains  of  Cashel 
and  Ballindoon  may  have  been  more  extensive  and  better  pre- 
served, maintains  that  for  beauty,  Sligo  bears  away  the  palm 
from  them  all. 

To  help  us  to  a  better  idea  of  the  building  we  should  put  out 
of  mind  their  present  surroundings.  In  former  times  the  con- 
vent was  the  most  easterly  structure  in  Sligo ;  and  even  so  late 
as  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it  was  spoken  of  as 
situated  "near  Sligo,"  which  would  prove  that  no  streets  or 
houses  surrounded  the  site  then,  as  they  do  now,  to  the  great 
injury  of  its  appearance.  The  establishment,  too,  was  much 
more  extensive  than  present  appearances  would  lead  one  to 
think  ;  for  while  it  reached  from  the  site  of  Abbey  Street  to 
the  river,  it  stretched  from  the  line  of  Thomas  Street,  to  the 
old  Distillery,  the  adjoining  land  being  its  gardens,  parks,  and 
pleasure  grounds. 

The  church,  which  lay  to  the  south  of  the  conventual  buildings, 
as  usually  happened  in  establishments  of  the  Mendicant  Orders 
in  Ireland,  was  built  of  rubble  limestone,  the  dressings  of  doors 
and  windows  being  carved  limestone.  The  present  length  of  the 
ruin  is,  in  interior  measurement,  132  feet:  that  is,  43  feet  9 
inches  in  chancel ;  14  feet  3  inches  in  tower;  and  74  feet  in 
nave ;  but,  as  the  western  gable  has  long  since  disappeared, 
there  is  no  means  now  of  determining  the  exact  original  length 
of  nave,  which  was  probably  longer  than  it  now  appears.  There 
are  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  south  side  wall,  eight  Early  English 
lancet  windows,  fourteen  feet  high  from  lintel  to  soffit  of  arch, 
one  of  the  windows,  however,  being  blocked  up  by  the  tower  wall, 
which,  by  the  way,  would  show  the  tower  to  be  an  addition  to 
the  original  building.  At  the  western  end  of  the  same  side- 
wall,  there  was  a  small  aisle,  having  arches  resting  on  octagon 
piers,  and  opening  into  the  transept,  a  feature  which  is  found 
also  in  the  church  of  Kilcrea,  county  Cork,  and  other  churches. 
The  central  tower  rests  on  gothic  arches,  elaborately  carved 
pendants  descending  from  soffit,*  and  terminating  in  interlaced 

*  Brash  in  Kilkenny  Archaeological  Journal,  Vol.  II.,  p.  88. 


246  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 

work.  About  80  feet  high,  the  tower  is  divided  by  two  string 
courses  into  three  stages,  the  two  upper  stages  being  lit  by  a 
two-light  window,  with  a  quatrefoil  head.  The  roof  of  nave 
was  very  high  pitched,  for  the  water  table,  which  protected  it 
from  the  wet,  at  its  junction  with  the  tower  wall,  still  projects 
from  the  wall,  in  the  form  of  an  acute  angled  triangle.  A  door 
leads  from  chancel  to  conventual  buildings,  and  another,  which 
is  now  blocked  up,  led  from  the  tower  to  the  ambulatory.  The 
present  level  of  the  chancel  and  nave  floor  seems  to  be  about  two 
feet  above  the  original  level. 

The  high  altar  of  cut  stone,  which  was  placed  against  the 
eastern  gable,  still  remains  in  situ.  The  pendant,  or  front  sup- 
port of  the  slab,  is  richly  decorated  ;  ears  of  wheat  and  bunches 
of  grapes,  as  emblems  of  the  holy  eucharist,  being  carved  in 
relief  upon  it.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  unsightly  mass  of 
bones,  of  which  Gabriel  Beranger*  speaks,  has  been  long  since 
removed. 

The  eastern  gable  contains  a  fine  pointed  Gothic  window,  the 
head  or  arch  being  filled  with  graceful  tracery,  and  the  lower 
part  divided  into  four  lights  by  mullions.  A  slender  staff  or 
bead  moulding  of  reddish  sandstone*  which  rises  from  two 
exquisitely  carved  bases,  and  runs  round  the  window,  adds  much 
to  the  beauty  of  its  appearance. 

*  This  accomplished  artist  writes  thus  of  Sligo  convent,  "  The  Abbey  of 
Sligo  is  most  pleasingly  situated  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Garrowoge,  which 
originates  in  Lough  Gill.  It  was  a  spacious  and  magnificent  building,  as  well 
as  one  could  judge  by  its  remains  of  very  good  workmanship.  The  east  window 
is  beautiful.  The  altar  under  it  was  covered  with  bones  and  skulls  in  such 
quantity  that  they  would  serve  to  load  a  small  vessel.  The  cloisters,  of  which 
three  sides  are  extant,  are  magnificent.  The  arches  and  pillars  being  of  excel- 
lent workmanship,  and  a  few  of  these  pillars  adorned,  as  is  seen  in  the  drawing. 
The  cloisters  are  still  covered  by  an  arched  roof.  In  the  corner  to  the  right  as 
one  looks  to  the  altar,  and  marked  A  in  the  plan,  up  several  feet  from  the 
ground,  are  the  tombs  of  the  O'Connors,  which  was  very  exact  in  the  drawing 
•which  Col.  Burton  gave  us.  The  tower  in  the  centre  of  the  building  is  pretty 
entire  except  the  battlements  at  the  top.  We  could  not  discover  any  steps  to 
get  up,  which  must  have  been  stopped  up  or  destroyed  by  time.  We  were  told 
that  the  building  extended  to  the  river  side,  but  could  not  trace  it." — Tour 
through  Connaught  in  1779. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  247 


While  considerable  portions  of  the  conventual  buildings 
remain,  they  are  still  incomplete  and  imperfect.  A  range  of 
ruins,  137  feet  long,  stretches  at  right  angles  from  the  eastern 
end  of  the  north  side  wall  towards  the  river,  and  is  terminated, 
on  one  side,  by  the  side  wall,  and  on  the  other  by  a  spiral 
staircase,  furnished  still  with  many  of  the  original  stone  steps. 
It  was  this  staircase  that  led  to  the  second  floor,  which  contained 
the  dormitories  of  the  prior  and  community — a  large  apartment, 
27  feet  wide,  and  well  lighted  by  four  square-headed  windows. 
The  floor  of  this  range  rested  on  vaults  which  are  13  feet  6 
inches  wide,  clear  of  walls,  and  which  are  arched  with  sandstone 
flags,  dropped  endwise  into  the  work.  The  basement  under  the 
arches  contained  the  sacristy,  the  sacristan's  laundry,  and, 
probably,  the  cellar. 

Parallel  to  the  side  wall  of  the  church  at  the  north  side,  and 
eastern  end,  is  a  structure  which  looks  the  oldest  piece  of 
masonry  on  the  ground.  It  is  terminated  to  the  east  by  a  gable, 
which  is  20  feet  9  inches  wide,  and  contains  a  small  Gothic  win- 
dow with  limestone  mullions,  but  this  window  is  plainly  an 
insertion,  as  the  jambs  and  mullions  of  a  large  original  ope, 
with  sandstone  dressings,  are  still  visible.  The  entrance  to  this 
apartment,  at  present,  is  through  the  east  side  of  cloister,  but 
this  was  not  always  so  ;  and  the  interior  too  is  so  much  changed 
by  recent  "  restoration,"  as  to  afford  no  good  idea  of  the  details 
of  the  structure,  as  it  stood  in  the  past. 

Though  the  plan  of  the  whole  establishment  was,  no  doubt,  a 
square,  as  was  the  plan  of  all  similar  structures  in  the  Dominican 
and  Franciscan  Orders,  there  is  little  trace  now  of  two  sides  of  the 
square,  the  west  and  the  north  side.  These  must  have  been 
demolished  when  Thomas  Street  was  forming;  for  it  is  known  that 
the  houses  of  that  street  were  built,  for  the  most  part,  with 
materials  thus  obtained  ;  and  only  that  Very  Rev.  Prior  Conlon 
succeded  in  stopping  this  vandalism,  much  more  of  Holy 
Cross  would  have  been  ruined.  The  demolition  of  the  northern 
side  of  the  square,  or  of  as  much  of  it  as  is  missing,  dates  appar- 
ently from  the  same  time.  Judging  by  the  analogy  of  other 


248  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


religious  houses,  the  west  side  contained  the  kitchen  and  the 
bake  house,  and,  over  these  structures,  apartments  to  serve  for 
the  library  and  for  stranger's  refectory  and  dormitories ;  while 
the  chapter  house,  and  some  other  adjuncts  of  the  establishment 
stood  to  the  north  of  the  cloister,  and  formed  the  north  side  of 
the  square.  The  people  say  that  the  convent  extended  formerly 
down  to  the  river ;  but  there  are  no  remains  or  evidence  now  of 
such  extension  ;  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  mill  and  fish  tank, 
which,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  were  placed  close  to  the  water's 
edge,  as  usually  happened  in  large  monasteries  similarly  situated, 
it  is  doubtful  whether  any  substantial  structure  stood  between 
the  north  side  of  the  square  and  the  river. 

The  cloister  must  have  been  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind 
in  the  country.  All  who  visit  the  Abbey  are  filled  with  admi- 
ration in  looking  at  it ;  and  the  greater  the  visitor's  experience, 
culture,  and  taste,  the  greater  his  gratification.  A  gentleman, 
who  was  at  once  an  architect  and  an  artist,  and  whose  studies 
made  him  intimately  acquainted  with  all  the  ecclesiastical  ruins 
of  Ireland,  having  visited  the  convent  in  company  with  the 
writer,  exhibited  much  feeling  on  coming  before  the  cloister, 
and,  after  contemplating  its  beauties  in  silence  for  several 
minutes,  threw  up  his  hands  in  admiration,  and  exclaimed, 
nearly  in  the  words  already  quoted  from  De  Burgo  : — "  Oh,  this 
beats  out  anything  and  everything  we  have  in  Ireland."  It  is 
told  of  the  elder  Pugin  that,  in  his  visits  to  Paris,  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  tear  him  away  from  the  Sainte  Chapelle,  which 
he  always  reckoned  the  most  perfect  piece  of  Gothic  architecture 
in  the  world  ;  and  it  was  about  as  difficult  a  matter  to  get  away 
this  visitor  from  before  the  cloisters  in  which  his  professional 
and  cultivated  eye  was  constantly  discovering  new  perfections. 

Originally  this  cloister  formed  a  square  or  great  quadrangle, 
three  sides  of  which  still  survive,  and  in  fair  preservation.  All 
round  the  quadrangle  ran  a  covered  arcade.  Each  side  is 
parted  from  the  garth,  or  uncovered  plat,  by  a  series  of  Gothic 
arches  which  rest  on  piers ;  the  height  from  base  to  apex  of 
arch  being  4  feet  2  inches ;  the  width  1  foot  11 J  inches;  and 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


249 


the  perpendicular  height  from  springing  to  soffit  of  arch,  15 
inches.  The  piers  consist  each  of  two  columns,  one  inside  the 
other,  and  both  connected  together  at  top  and  bottom  by  means 
of  common  caps  and  bases.  It  is  more  especially  in  designing 
and  executing  these  piers — columns,  caps,  and  bases — the 
architect  draws  on  his  resources,  and  the  artist  shows  his  master 
hand.  Though  there  are  14  piers  in  the  north  cloister,  18  in 
the  east,  and  13  in  the  south,  hardly  one  in  the  three  series 
resembles,  in  all  respects,  another. 


OLD   ABBEY,   AND   SPECIMEN  OF  CLOISTERS,    SLTGO,    1776.  * 

While  the  size  and  proportions  of  the  arches  are  all  the  same 
as  they  ought  to  be,  to  insure  the  necessary  uniformity  in  the 
appearance  of  the  ranges,  the  ornamentation  is  diverse,  as  well 
in  the  caps  and  bases,  which  are  differently  moulded,  as  in  the 
columns,  some  of  which  are  fluted,  some  diapered,  some  panelled, 

*  The  convent  church  in  this  illustration  is  drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr. 
Wakeman  from  a  sketch  which  was  made  in  1776,  and  which  was  kindly  lent 
by  the  Honourable  Evelyn  Ashley  to  the  writer. 

The  specimen  columns  are  after  Grose.  It  is  right,  however,  to  add,  that  the 
cloister  arches  are  all,  without  exception,  Gothic,  though,  through  some 
unaccountable  oversight,  they  are  Norman,  in  Grose's  "  Antiquities  of  Ireland." 


250  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 

some  twisted,  the  fluting,  the  diapering,  the  panelling,  the 
twisting,  being  always  varied  in  pattern  if  applied  a  second  time 
or  oftener  to  successive  columns. 

A  buttress  rose  from  the  open  square  or  garth  against  the  centre 
of  each  side,  and  served,  not  only  for  strength, 'but  for  ornament, 
being  beautifully  designed  and  executed,  and  containing, 
probably,  a  small  statue  as  one  of  its  members ;  for  this  latter 
circumstance  may  fairly  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  stone 
statue,  which  stands  now  on  the  high  altar,  fits  exactly  into  the 
place  of  a  missing  member  of  one  of  these  buttresses,  to  which, 
therefore,  it  must  have  belonged.  The  ambulatory,  which  ran 
round  the  four  sides  of  the  cloisters,  was  covered  with  a  vaulted 
roof,  most  of  which  still  remains,  and  was  6  feet  6  inches 
inside,  so  as  to  serve  for  exercise  and  recreation  in  wet  or  broken 
weather.  The  cloister  square  accommodated  congregations, 
which  assembled  there,  in  the  open  air,  to  receive  religious  instruc- 
tion ;  and  the  stone  pulpit,  from  which  the  preacher  addressed 
them,  stood  on  the  north  side,  and  was  built  partly  into  the  wall, 
at  the  height  of  about  eight  or  ten  feet  from  the  ground,  where 
some  of  it  may  still  be  seen.  The  approach  from  the  pulpit  was 
from  the  north  wing  of  the  conventual  buildings,  and  was  hid  off 
from  the  congregation  by  a  high  wall,  so  that  nothing  could  be 
seen  of  the  preacher,  till  he  emerged  through  the  thickness  of 
the  wall,  by  a  doorway  that  still  remains,  and  appeared  in  the 
chair. 

Though  the  sermons  and  discourses  delivered  from  this  pulpit 
were  intended  for  congregations,  assembled  in  fair  weather  under 
the  sky,  still,  if  it  came  on  wet,  there  was  no  need  to  put  off  or 
interrupt  the  service,  as  the  people  could  retire  through  the 
arches  into  the  covered  cloisters,  where  the  speaker's  voice  easily 
followed  and  reached  them.  A  visit,  then,  to  this  portion  of  the 
ruins,  while  it  sets  under  the  eye  some  beautiful  works  of  art, 
for  which  we  are  indebted  to  the  religious,  brings  also  to  mind  a 
much  higher  sphere  of  their  usefulness,  in  which  they  not  only 
instructed  the  people  habitually  in  the  church,  but  assembled 
them  in  the  open  air,  on  special  occasions,  in  numbers  which  the 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  251 


church  could  not  contain,  the  better  thus  to  stir  up  in  them  the 
energies  of  spiritual  life,  to  strengthen  them,  perhaps,  under  the 
pressure  of  some  great  calamity,  to  nerve  them,  it  may  be,  for 
the  performance  of  some  common  duty,  and,  in  any  case,  to 
train  them  to  do  and  suffer  everything  for  the  "one  thing 
necessary." 

After  a  close  examination  of  the  buildingwe  find  it  impossible  to 
discriminate  confidently  between  the  parts  of  the  original  founda- 
tion and  those  added  in  1415,  or  since.  Much  of  the  Fitzgerald 
church  still  exists,  though  the  walls  have  been,  in  all  likelihood, 
somewhat  lengthened  at  the  western  end,  and  the  parts,  breached 
by  the  fire,  repaired.  The  south-eastern  angle  of  the  chancel 
bears,  at  present,  unmistakable  marks  of  burning,  which  goes  far 
to  show  that  this  part  of  the  house  existed  and  suffered  in  1414, 
though  it  is  still  quite  possible  that  the  injury  may  date  from 
1642,  when  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton  gave  the  place  to  the  flames. 
The  lancet  windows  in  the  south  side-wall  are,  most  probably, 
co-eval  with  the  original  foundation  ;  for  we  find  a  similar  range 
of  eight  lancet  windows  in  the  Franciscan  church  of  Buttevant, 
which  was  built  in  the  thirteenth  century,  in  1251,  within  a 
year  or  two  of  the  building  of  Sligo  Convent.  The  small  struc- 
ture, parallel  to  the  north  side- wall  of  church,  which,  as  has  been 
said,  appears  to  be  the  oldest  bit  of  building  on  the  premises,  is 
certainly  part  of  the  work  of  Maurice  Fitzgerald;  while  the 
walls  to  the  back  of  the  cloister  ambulatory,  at  all  events  parts 
of  them,  are  of  more  modern  erection  than  the  church,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  same  should  be  said  of  the  cloister 
arches.  The  ornate  and  expensive  style,  in  which  this  portion  of 
the  convent  is  finished,  shows  it  to  have  been  built  at  a  time 
when  architecture  was  flourishing,  and  by  persons  who  had 
ample  means  to  draw  on  ;  but  this  consideration  is  not  enough 
to  fix  the  time ;  for  if  the  Apostolic  Letters  and  the  liberality  of 
local  benefactors  placed  such  means  at  the  disposal  of  Prior 
MacDonogh  and  his  community,  it  is  equally  a  fact  that  Maurice 
Fitzgerald,  who  was  Lord  Deputy,  and  probably,  the  wealthiest 
man  of  his  day,  had  also  abundant  resources  for  the  work.  Nor 


252  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


does  the  state  of  architecture,  at  the  period  of  the  foundation, 
in  1253,  militate  against  the  earlier  date;  for  we  find  that 
columns  quite  as  finished  and  beautiful,  which  still  exist,  were 
put  up  in  the  church  of  Buttevant  at  that  date.  Some  little 
argument,  in  favour  of  the  later  period,  may  perhaps  be  drawn 
from  the  appearance  of  the  work,  parts  of  which  look  as  fresh 
and  clean  as  if  they  had  only  come  from  under  the  chisel. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  central  tower  may  be  referred,  with 
certainty,  to  the  time  of  the  restoration,  as  well,  because  it  is  not 
bonded  into  the  side-walls,  which  it  would  be,  had  it  formed  part 
of  the  original  design,  as  also  because  such  towers  are  not  found 
in  churches  anterior  to  the  fourteenth  century. — If  we  except 
then  this  tower,  some  walls  or  parts  of  walls  in  the  conventual 
buildings,  and,  of  course,  the  roof,  the  whole  establishment,  such 
as  it  existed  in  its  palmiest  day,  may  have  been  the  work  of 
Maurice  Fitzgerald,  though  some  writers,  without  authority  or 
reason  to  support  them,  date  all  the  buildings  from  the  time  of 
the  restoration  after  the  fire. 

The  convent  was  dedicated  from  the  beginning  to  God  under 
the  invocation  of  the  Holy  Cross;  and,  unlike  some  other 
religious  establishments  of  Ireland,  which  have  undergone 
several  dedications,  and  received  thus  new  names  and  new 
patrons,  continued  so  dedicated  to  the  end.  The  early  Geral- 
dines  had  a  special  devotion  to  the  cross,  which  they  showed 
not  only  by  bearing  a  red  cross  on  their  coat  of  arms,  as  their 
descendants  still  do,  but  also  by  causing  the  three  Dominican 
houses,  which  they  founded  in  Ireland — Sligo,  Tralee,  and 
Youghal — to  be  dedicated  under  the  style  and  title  of  Holy 
Cross.  It  may  be  remarked  here  in  passing,  with  De  Burgo, 
that  the  Irish  had  always  particular  veneration  for  the  cross,  so 
that  there  was  a  custom  among  those  of  them  who  recited 
the  divine  office,  to  say  always  the  antiphon,  versicle,  and  collect 
of  Holy  Cross  after  the  Salve  Regina  in  Complin. 

The  church  must  have  contained  a  large  number  of  imposing 
tombs,  judging  by  those  which  still  exist,  and,  still  more,  by  the 
numerous  fragments  that  lie  scattered  about.  To  the  left,  as 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  253 


you  enter,  you  see  recessed  into  the  north  wall  of  the  nave,  an 
elaborate  altar  tomb,  still  in  fair  preservation,  which  from  its 
proportions  and  sculpture  one  would  be  inclined  to  count  the 
most  interesting  piece  of  art  in  the  place.  Petrie,  it  appears, 
made  a  detailed  drawing  of  this  beautiful  monument,  but  the 
writer,  who  would  gladly  give  an  engraving  of  it,  regrets  that 
his  many  inquiries  have  not  enabled  him  to  learn  where  or 
with  whom  the  drawing  now  is.  This  tomb  belonged  to  the 
O'Creans  or  Creans  who  were  the  wealthiest  people  of  Sligo, 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  and  who  expen- 
ded no  small  share  of  their  wealth  on  works  of  art,  and, 
more  especially,  on  works  of  art  connected  with  religion. 
Several  monuments  of  theirs  which  are  now  broken  up,  occu- 
pied the  north  and  south  sides  of  the  tower.  Inside  the 
western  arch  of  the  tower  are  sculptured,  on  two  small  flags, 
two  heraldic  shields — one  bearing  the  arms  of  the  O'Creans, 
and  the  other  the  arms  of  the  Jones  of  Banada ;  and  under  one 
of  the  shields  may  be  deciphered,  with  some  little  trouble,  the 
following  curious  lines : — 

"  Wee  two  are  one  by  His  decree 
That  reigneth  from  eternity 
^That  first  erected  have  these  stones 
"Wee  Kobuck  Crean  and  Alice  Jones."* 

It  would  appear  probable  from  these  lines  that  one  of  the 
O'Creans  was  married  to  a  daughter  or  niece  of  Sir  Roger  Jones, 
from  whom  the  Joneses  of  Banada  descend  ;  he  and  a  brother 
being  the  only  Joneses  then  in  Sligo  ;  and  we  might  be  justified 
in  inferring  from  the  suggestive  wording  of  the  two  first  lines, 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  Sir  Roger's  family  was  then  Protestant, 
and  the  O'Crean's  Catholic,  that  the  marriage,  while  duly  cele- 

*  It  is  not  likely  that  the  above  epitaph  was  composed  on  the  principle  of 
the  following,  which  is  found  at  Launceston  in  Tasmania  :— 
"  Beneath  this  rustic  pile  of  stones 
Lie  the  remains  of  Mary  Jones — 
Her  name  was  Lloyd  ;  it  was  not  Jones ; 
But  Jones  was  put  to  rhyme  with  stones." 


254 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


brated  in  facie  ecclesicB,  was  not  contracted  before  a  Protestant 
minister,  as  tbe  civil  laws  of  tbe  day  required.  At  the  top  of 
the  O'Crean  shield  is  the  date  1625. 

The  mural  monument  of  Sir  Donogh  O'Connor  and  Lady 
Desmond,  which  stands  seven  or  eight  feet  above  the  ground,  in 
the  eastern  end  of  the  south  side  wall,  has  been  often  engraved 


SIR  DONOGH  O'CONNOR'S  MONUMENT,  SLIGO  ABBEY.* 
from  an  admirable  drawing  of  Mr.  Grose,  and  is  thus  the  best 
known  object  in  the  entire  building.  In  this  monument  the 
knight  and  his  wife  are  represented  kneeling  in  prayer,  under 
an  alcove,  with  a  prie  Lieu  between  them,  the  lady  wearing  her 
coronet  and  the  knight  bare-headed,  his  helmet  being  laid  on 

*  Drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr.  Wakeman,  and  engraved  by  Mrs.  Millard. 


HISTORY   OF  SL1GO. 


the  floor  behind  him.  The  whole  is  divided  into  six  stages 
by  chamfered  string  courses ;  and  on  the  lowest  we  see  the 
emblems  of  death  and  the  grave  in  four  skulls,  a  spade,  and  a 
time  glass;  in  the  second,  the  effigies  of  two  angels;  in  the 
third,  which  is  the  chiefest,  the  kneeling  figures  of  Sir  Donogh 
and  Lady  Desmond,  as  just  described;  in  the  fourth,  three 
shields,  one  over  the  lady,  another  over  the  knight,  and  the 
third  in  the  centre — the  first  bearing  devices,  which  cannot  be 
deciphered,  the  second  bearing  a  tree,  and  the  third,  which  is 
surmounted  with  a  coronet,  a  swine;  in  the  fifth,  the  effigies 
again  of  two  angels  ;  and  in  the  sixth  and  last,  Saint  Peter  on 
one  side,  Saint  Paul  on  the  other,  and  between  them,  but  on  a 
much  higher  level,  the  cross  with  the  Redeemer  fastened  to  it. 
The  design  is  bold  and  effective ;  resembling  much  the  great 
Earl  of  Boyle's  famous  monument  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral, 
Dublin,*  and  considering  the  hardness  and  untractableness  of 
the  material — native  limestone — the  figures  and  other  objects 
represented  show  a  roundness,  a  softness,  and  a  suppleness,  which 
evince  a  considerable  skill  in  the  sculptor,  as  well  as  great  fine- 
ness and  delicacy  of  touch.  The  following  epitaph  appears  on  the 
lowest  compartment: — "Hie  jacet  famosissimus  miles  Donatus 


*  This  monument,  of  which  a  beautiful  engraving  is  given  in  Monk  Mason's 
"  Saint  Patrick's  Cathedral," — Notes,  page  411,— was  erected  by  the  Earl  over 
"his  most  dear,  virtuous,  and  religious  wife,  the  Ladie  Katherine,"  and  is, 
says  Mason,  "  an  interesting  object,  as  well  from  the  grandeur  of  its  appearance, 
as  on  account  of  the  schisms  and  factions  which  it  occasioned  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical and  civil  departments  of  the  State."  The  object,  however,  of  this 
reference  to  it,  is  not  to  notice  the  quarrel  to  the  death  which  it  bred  between 
the  Earl  of  Strafford,  and  the  Earl  of  Cork,  but  to  call  attention  to  the  great 
resemblance,  which  it  bears  in  outline  and  general  appearance,  to  the  Sligo 
monument — resemblance  so  striking  as  to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  one  must 
be  a  copy  of  the  other.  And,  admitting  the  conclusion,  the  structure  in  St. 
Patrick's  must  be  the  copy,  and  that  in  Holy  Cross,  the  original,  as  the  latter 
was  erected  several  years  before  the  other.  We  thus  get  a  good  idea  of  the 
high  estimation  in  which  Sir  Donogh's  monument  was  held,  as  a  work  of  art, 
when  we  find  the  great  Earl  of  Cork,  the  wealthiest  man  in  Ireland,  and  the 
most  magnificent  in  his  tastes,  come  to  Holy  Cross  for  a  model  when  about  to 
erect,  regardless  of  expense,  as  splendid  a  memorial  as  possible  in  honour  of 
his  wife. 


256  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Cornelianus  comitatus  Sligias  dominus  cum  sua  uxore  illustris- 
sima  domina  Elinora  Butler  comitissa  Desmouias,  quaD  me  fieri 
fecit  A.D.  1624,  post  mortem  sui  mariti,  qui  obiit  11  Aug.,  1609, 
item  ejus  filia  et  primi  mariti,  viz.  Comitis  Desmoniae  nomine 
Elizabetha  valde  virtuosa  domina  Sepulta  fuit  hoc  in  tumulo 
31  Novem.  anno  Domini,  1623." — Here  lies  the  renowned  knight 
Donogh  O'Connor,  Lord  of  the  county  Sligo,  with  his  wife,  the 
most  noble  Lady  Eleanor  Butler,  Countess  of  Desmond,  who 
caused  me  to  be  made  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1624,  after  the 
death  of  her  husband,  who  died  the  llth  August,  1609.  Also 
her  daughter  by  her  first  husband,  who  was  named  Elizabeth, 
and  was  a  most  virtuous  lady.  She  was  buried  in  this  tomb,  the 
31st  November,  AD.  1623.* 

This  monument  was  erected  at  the  expense  of  Lady  Eleanor, 
and  apparently,  during  her  lifetime ;  for  though  Lodgef  im- 
plies the  contrary,  in  using  the  word  "  bequeath  ";  the  above 
epitaph,  of  which  he  appears  to  have  known  nothing,  makes  it 
clear  that  the  structure  was  in  existence  in  1624,  when  the 
countess  was  alive.  Lodge  adds  that  the  burial  of  Sir  Donogh 
and  his  wife  was  to  be  "  in  a  chapel  which  she  directed  to  be 
built  near  the  abbey  of  St.  Dominick  in  Sligo  ;  "  but  instead  of 
such  a  chapel,  apart  from  the  convent,  Lady  Eleanor,  no  doubt, 
meant  a  crypt  or  subterranean  chapel,  in  which  the  bodies 
should  be  laid,  which,  judging  by  a  blocked  up  arch  or  doorway 
in  the  eastern  gable,  was  actually  built,  and  which,  if  searched 
for,  may  probably  be  found  directly  under  the  mural  monument 
in  the  chancel  part  of  the  church. 

Had  this  liberal  lady  her  own  way  she  would  have  left  after 
her  in  Sligo  an  institution,  which  must  have  proved  a  great 
blessing.  By  her  will  she  bequeathed  £300 — equal  to  ten 
times  that  sum  now,  towards  the  erection  and  support  of  an 

*  The  original  inscription  is  rapidly  becoming  illegible,  aud  owing  to  its 
height  from  the  ground,  needs  no  little  exertion  in  those  who  would  decipher 
it.  For  his  copy  of  it  the  writer  is  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Cox,  St. 
Vincent's  Hospital,  Dublin. 

t  Lodge's  Peerage  of  Ireland,  Vol.  I.,  p.  75. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  257 


hospital  for  the  poor,*  the  money  to  come  out  of  the  arrears 
due  her  in  England  by  the  Government,  in  lieu,  there  is  reason 
to  think,  of  the  jointure  which  she  lost  on  the  attainder  of 
her  first  husband  ;  but  this  benevolent  provision  of  her  will 
never  received  effect ;  and  the  cause  of  its  nullity  could  hardly 
be  any  other  than  an  objection,  on  the  part  of  the  public 
authorities,  to  co-operate,  in  any  way,  in  what  might  seem  to 
be  the  endowment  of  a  religious  establishment. 

Though  the  three  monuments  mentioned  are  the  only  old 
ones  now  in  the  church,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  there  existed 
others  still  older,  though  now  effaced  by  time,  or  destroyed  by 
man,  considering  the  many  persons  of  leading  families  buried 
in  it.  Before  the  erection  of  Ballindoon,  Ballymote,  and  Cree- 
valea  or  Drumahaire,  it  was  the  burying  place  of  all  the  chief 
families  of  Lower  Connaught,  as  well  as  of  the  O'Connors 
Sligo,  as  sufficiently  appears  from  the  following  entries  of  the 
Four  Masters : — 

"  1336.     Aine,  daughter  of  Teige  MacDonough,  and  wife  of 

*  Lodge  gives  the  following  interesting  particulars  of  her  will : — By  her  will 
she  appointed  her  sons-in-law,  Sir  Daniel  O'Brien  and  Sir  Robert  Cressy, 
Knights,  her  executors,  and  willed  them  to  pay  all  her  debts,  called  her  stated 
accounts,  and  her  funeral  expenses,  out  of  her  moveable  goods  and  chattels ; 
and  after  the  discharge  thereof,  her  legacies  ;  she  gave  to  her  daughter  Joan  a 
silver  ewer  and  basin,  and  to  her  daughter  Ellen,  all  the  rest  of  her  plate,  jewels 
and  goods  ;  she  left  to  Daniel  Cridegane,  Clerk,  £20;  to  her  servant  William 
Stanley,  £20  ;  to  Mary  ni-Meyleene,  £10  ;  to  Ellen  St.  John,  £20  ;  to  Donogh 
Gradie,  £40;  to  Mary  ni-Briene,  40s.;  to  Margaret  Oge  and  to  Margaret  Geare, 
three  young  cows  a-piece.  She  bequeathed  towards  the  building  of  an  hospital 
in  Sligo  £100,  and  £200  more  (both  out  of  her  arrears  in  England),  to  be  laid 
out  in  an  annuity  mortgage,  or  land,  so  as  to  yield  £20  a  year  towards  the  sup- 
port of  the  poor  residing  in  said  hospital.  She  left  to  Andrew  Creane,  of 
Armagh,  Esq.,  and  to  his  son  John,  £100  of  her  said  arrears  ;  to  her  grandchild, 
Ellenor  Browne  (in  lieu  of  the  debt  she  owed  her),  eight  score  pounds  sterling 
of  her  said  arrears  ;  to  her  grandchildren,  Mary  and  Catherine  Browne,  towards 
their  preferment,  £200  a-piece  of  her  said  arrears;  and  the  like  sum  to  Ellenor 
Butler,  daughters  of  the  then  Lord  Dunboyne ;  leaves  divers  legacies  to  her 
servants  out  of  the  said  arrears  ;  and  wills  her  executors  (if  they  shall  receive 
them),  to  take  her  servant  Cormac  McDonnell,  his  debts,  into  their  consider- 
ation, and  see  them  paid,  being  the  sum  of  £210,  as  they  shall  think  fit  in  their 
discretion.  The  will  is  dated  5th  Sept. ,  1636.— The  Peerage  of  Ireland  by  John 
Lodge,  &c.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  75. 

VOL.   I.  R 


258  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Tiernan  O'Rourke  (Lord  of  Breifny),  the  most  favoured  of  the 
women  of  Leth  Chuinn,  died  at  Tuaim  Seancha,  on  Lough 
Finvoy,  and  was  interred  at  Sligo." 

1402.  Farrell  O'Rourke,  heir  to  the  lordship  of  Breifney,  a 
powerful,  energetic,  comely,  and  truly  hospitable  man,  was  slain 
in  his  own  house  by  the  Clann  Caba,  and  was  interred  in  the 
monastery  of  Sligo. 

1418.  Tiernan  More,  the  son  of  Ualgarg  O'Rourke,  Lord  of 
Briefny,  the  bravest  and  most  puissant  man  that  had  come  of 
Hy-Bruin  race,  a  man  who  had  wrested  his  principality  from 
his  enemies  by  the  strength  of  his  arm,  died  at  an  advanced 
age,  about  the  festival  of  Saint  Bridget,  and  was  interred  in  the 
monastery  of  Sligo. 

1454.  Brian  MacDonough,  Chief  of  Tirerrill,  died  on  the  Fri- 
day before  the  Calends  of  January,  after  Unction  and  due 
Penance,  and  was  interred  in  the  monastery  of  Sligo. 

1581.  The  Calbhach,  son  of  Domhnall,  son  of  Tadgh,  son  of 
Cathal  Oge  O'Connor,  the  undisputed  heir  of  Sligo  and  Lower 
Connaught,  died  the  Friday  between  the  two  Easters  of  this 
year,  and  the  last  day  of  the  month  of  March.  He  was  interred 
in  Sligo. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1586.  O'Hart,  that  is,  Felim,  the  son  of  William  O'Hart, 
died  on  Easter  night,  and  was  buried    in  Sligo  on  Monday. 
—Id. 

1587.  Owen,  son   of  Rory,   son   of   Felim,   son   of  Manus 
(O'Connor),  died   a  fortnight  before    All-hallowtide,  and  was 
buried  in  Sligo. — Id. 

1588.  O'Connor  Sligo,  that  is,  Domhnall,  the  son  of  Tadgh, 
son  of  Cathal  Oge,  the  choice  of  the  Gaeidhel  of  Erinn,  died  on 
Little  Christmas  night  in  Sligo,  and  was  buried  in  it. — Id. 

There  is  little  known,  in  comparison  of  what  ought  to  be,  of 
those  who  passed  through  the  convent  as  inmates,  owing,  first, 
to  the  notorious  indolence*  of  the  Irish  in  committing  their 

*  De  Burgo  complains  bitterly  and  often  of  this  indolence.  In  his  preface 
(page  viii.)  to  the  Hibernia  Dominicana  he  writes:  "Nullam  prqrsus  opem 
literiariam  recepi,quod  antiquse  jam  et  heu !  minium  notse  Hibernigenarum,  hisce 
in  rebus  ignavise  (absit  in  juria  verbo)  partim  attribuendum  videtur,  partim  vero 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  259 


transactions  to  writing,  and,  secondly,  to  the  loss,  partly  by  per- 
secution and  partly  by  accident,  of  such  documents  as  did  exist. 
The  contrast  between  the  English  and  Scotch,  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  Irish,  on  the  other,  in  the  matter  of  records,  must  he 
humiliating  to  every  Irishman  that  examines  the  subject.  There 
is  hardly  a  monastery  in  England  or  Scotland  which  has  not  its 
separate  history  in  local  annals,  registers,  memoirs,  or  similar 
documents  ;  but  little  of  the  kind  is  to  be  found  in  Ireland  ;  and 
if  such  aids  to  history  are  met  with  in  a  few  religious  houses  of 
Ireland,  it  is  those  that  were  Anglo-Norman  rather  than  Celtic. 
The  convent  of  Sligo  was  as  Celtic  an  establishment  as  any  in 
Ireland ;  for  its  community  was.  usually  recruited  from  the 
families  of  local  chiefs,  so  that  De  Burgo,  quoting  O'Heyne, 
says  that  its  inmates  were  generally  "nobles."  And  in  confirma- 
tion of  this  remark  it  may  be  noted  that  whenever  the  name  of 
a  religious  of  Holy  Cross,  Sligo,  occurs  in  history,  it  is  sure  to 
be  O'Connor,  McDonogh,  O'Crean,  O'Hart,  O'Beolan,  or  that 
of  some  other  distinguished  family  of  the  neighbourhood. 

Meagre,  however,  as  are  the  records  of  the  convent,  they 
suffice  to  show  that  it  produced  some  men  of  note,  and  among 
them,  five  provincials  of  the  Irish  province  of  the  order  ;  a  very 
large  contribution  to  the  Provincialate,  considering  that  there 
were  forty-three  Dominican  houses  in  Ireland,  and  that  there 
are  only  thirty-two  undoubted  provincials  in  De  Burgo's  list  of 
those  officials.  Though  the  order  of  Friars  Preachers  or 
Dominicans  was  introduced  into  Ireland,  in  the  year  1224,  the 
country  was  only  a  vicariate  of  the  province  of  England  up  to 
the  year  1484,  when  it  appears  to  have  been  constituted  an 
independent  province,  separate  and  distinct  from  England. 
From  1484  to  1536  there  were  sometimes  three  separate  pro- 
vincials or  quasi  provincials ;  one  of  the  Reformed  convents, 
another  of  the  unreformed,  and  the  third  of  the  convents  of 

quia  ccenobia  omnia,  eonimque  proinde  archiva  adeoque  et  plurima  preclar- 
issima  monumenta,  ex  quibus  laudabilissima  nunc  historia  conscribi  posset, 
Acatholicorum  rabie  in  baud  interrupts  bellorum,  et  persecutionum  cladibus 
a  lapsu  in  schisma  Henrici  VIII.  destructa  fuere."  See  also  page  526. 


260  HISTOKY   OF  SLIGO. 


the  Pale  ;  but  after  1536,  when  Henry  Vlll^fell  into  schism, 
all  three  were  united  by  Paul  III.  into  one  province. 

1.  Whether  there  were  other  provincials,  properly  so  called, 
in  office  in  the  sixteenth  century  before  Thaddeus  O'Devany 
may  perhaps  admit  of  much  doubt,  but  it  is  stated  by  the 
author  of  Hibernia  Dominicana  to  be  quite  certain  ("  certo 
certius  ")  that  O'Devany  was  provincial  in  the  year  1563.  This 
good  man  was  an  alumnus  of  the  convent  of  Sligo,  and  a 
native  of  the  neighbourhood,  where  the  name  [is  still  common 
and  respectable  ;  and,  during  his  long  life,  for  he~did  not  die  till 
1608,  he  reflected  great  honour  on  his  convent,  and  conferred 
great  benefit  on  the  Order.  He  was  twice  Provincial,  and 
whether  in  office  or  out  of  it,  had  the  chief  hand  in  promoting 
the  interests  of  his  Institute.  A  paper  presented  to  the  Sacred 
Congregation  in  1627,  and  giving  a  list  of  the  convents  then 
in  Ireland,  says :  "  All  these  convents  were  occupied  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Order  before  Henry  VIII.,  King  of  England,  and  his 
daughter  Elizabeth  usurped  the  title  of  Supreme  Head  of  the 
Church,  and  suppressed  all  the  convents  of  all  the  religious 
Orders  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  expelling  all  the  inmates 
and  appropriating  the  revenues ;  but  they  were  never  able  to 
root  out  the  Dominicans  from  Ireland.  For,  though  driven 
from  their  monasteries,  they  did  not  leave  the  kingdom,  but 
concealed  themselves  in  the  houses  of  lay  Catholics,  or  betook 
themselves  to  some  convent  of  the  Order,  situated  in  in- 
accessible places,  and  in  the  possession  of  Catholics  ;  and  there 
they  held  their  chapters  as  best  they  could,  and  made  regula- 
tions suited  to  the  times,  living  all  through  in  obedience  to  one 
provincial  or  one  vicar-general,  who,  during  the  whole  of  that 
period,  up  to  about  the  year  1612,  was  the  Very  Keverend 
Father  Thaddeus  Devany.  At  his  death  the  friars  were  dis- 
persed among  the  secular  Catholics."* 

According  to  the  annals  of  the  Order,  Father  O'Devany  was 
a  man  of  great  zeal  and  successful  labours  for  religion.  He 

*  Spicilegium  Ossoriense,  Vol  I.,  p.  156. 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  261 


received  a  large  number  to  the  habit,  and  was  the  means  of 
saving  the  Order  from  extinction  in  Ireland.  He  is  said  also  to 
have  possessed  miraculous  gifts;  for  when  somebody  was 
lamenting  before  him  the  ravages  wrought  throughout  the 
country  by  George  Bingham,  the  brother  of  Sir  Richard,  "  Give 
yourself  no  trouble  now  on  that  score,'  says  O'Devany,  "  for 
George  Bingham  can  do  no  more  harm  either  to  church  or 
country/'  a  true  saying,  for  Bingham  was  just  then  slain  in  the 
castle  of  Sligo  [by  Ulick  Burke,  though  O'Devany  had  no 
natural  means  of  knowing  the  fact. 

While  rendering  most  important  service  to  his  Order  by  pro- 
curing numerous  recruits  for  it  in  Ireland,  he  laid  it  under  still 
greater  obligation  by  securing  a  new  convent  in  Louvain,  which 
was  to  serve  as  a  seminary  and  novitiate  for  the  education  and 
training  of  Dominicans  destined  for  the  Irish  mission.  To 
obtain  this  asylum  he  spared  no  effort,  direct  or  indirect,  bring- 
ing ail  the  influence,  he  could,  to  bear  on  the  Spanish  and  Belgian 
authorities,  with  such  effect,  that,  though  the  house  was  not 
actually  obtained  for  several  years  after  his  death,  the  credit  of 
the  foundation  is  given  to  him.  "  Thaddeus  O'Devany,"  says 
De  Burgo,  "who  was  now  the  Provincial  of  the  desolate  province, 
foreseeing  that  our  Order  would  very  soon  become  extinct  in 
Ireland,  unless  a  suitable  place  for  the  education  of  Irish 
Dominicans  were  found  in  some  Catholic  kingdom,  left  no  stone 
unturned  to  obtain  such  a  place,  and  succeeded  in  his  efforts, 
though  our  religious  did  not  take  possession  of  Louvain  till  after 
his  death,  which  occurred  in  1608." 

Being  such  a  benefactor,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  be  held 
in  great  esteem  by  his  Order,  and,  accordingly,  we  find  the 
following  appreciation  of  his  merits  in  the  acts  of  a  General 
Congregation  held  in  Rome  in  1656 : — "  Father  Thaddeus 
O'Devany,  being  full  of  zeal  for  the  interests  of  religion,  and 
for  those  of  his  Order  and  Institute,  having  received  a  great 
number  of  young  men  from  all  quarters  to  the  habit,  thus  pre- 
vented the  extinction  of  the  Order  in  those  regions  in  which  he 
filled  twice  the  office  of  Provincial  ....  Broken  down  by 


262  HISTOEY   OF   SLIGO. 


labour  and  old  age,  when  he  had  reached  his  last  days,  and  while 
the  Catholics,  who  surrounded  him,  were  deploring  his  departure, 
and  their  own  great  loss  in  consequence,  he  calmly  foretold  that 
he  would  not  quit  life  before  the  arrival  of  a  religious  of  the 
Order,  who  would  assist  him  in  his  agony,  and  then  succeed  him 
in  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  to  the  faithful.  It 
occurred  just  as  he  foretold ;  for  on  the  very  day  of  his  most 
happy  decease,  Father  Daniel  O'Creidegan  arrived  from  Portu- 
gal (having  completed  his  studies  at  Lisbon,)  and  in  his  hands 
Father  Thaddeus,  full  of  years  and  merit,  breathed  his  last,  and 
fell  asleep  sweetly  in  the  Lord.  He  was  buried  in  the  church 
of  his  convent  at  Sligo  in  the  year  1608."  It  is  right  to  add 
that  the  Dominican  Convent  of  Louvain,  which  O'Devany  had 
so  large  a  share  in  founding,  and  which  got  the  name  of  Convent 
of  Holy  Cross,  was,  most  probably,  so  called  after  Holy  Cross 
convent,  Sligo. 

2.  The  next  provincial  which  the  Sligo  convent  supplied,  was 
Daniel  O'Creidegan,  or  O'Crean  (for  the  two  names  are  the 
same,)  but  a  different  person  from  the  Daniel  O'Creidegan  that 
assisted  at  the  death-bed  of  Father  O'Devany.     The  Daniel  we 
now  speak  of,  seems  to  have  been  a  contemporary  of  Father 
O'Devany  through  life,  and,  like  him,  to  have  been  twice  Pro- 
vincial of  the  Irish  province ;  first,  between  1570  and  1590,  and 
second  from  1600  to  1603.     In   this   latter   year  he  left  the 
country  for  Spain.     Of  him  Bernard  De  Jonghe  thus  writes  in 
his  Dominican  Belgium :  "  Towards  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  Elizabeth,  the  illegitimate  daughter  of  Henry  VIII, 
usurping  the  kingdoms  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and 
assailing  with    fury,    churches,    monasteries,    and    everything 
belonging  to  religion,  wrought  such  havoc  on  holy  places,  that 
in  1603,  the  year  in  which  she  died,  she  had  not  left  one  single 
house  unprofaned  in   the   three  kingdoms.     All  the  religious 
were  either  driven  out  of  the  country  or  put  to  death,  except  a 
few  mendicants,  who  hid  themselves  in  inaccessible  places,  to 
guard  and  strengthen  the  faith  of  the  Catholics  that  survived 
the  persecution.    Among  these  was  the  venerable  Father  Daniel 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  263 

O'Creidegain,  then  (1603,)  Provincial,  an  office  he  had  held  for  a 
long  time,  and  the  venerable  Father  Thaddeus  O'Devany,  of  the 
Convent  of  the  Holy  Cross,  Sligo,  the  latter  succeeded  the 
former  in  the  rule  of  this  desolate  province." 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  convent  of  Sligo  alone,  of  all 
the  Dominican  houses  in  Ireland,  was  in  a  condition  to  furnish 
the  Provincials  of  this  time  of  persecution  ;  and  the  explanation 
would  seem  to  be  that  given  by  Dr.  Lynch  in  his  manuscript 
History  of  the  Irish  Church,  that,  through  the  influence  of  Sir 
Donnell  O'Connor,  this  house  enjoyed  a  tranquillity  unknown  to 
the  other  religious  houses  of  the  country.  This  exceptional 
quiet  and  security  dates  from  the  earlier  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign. 

3.  The  Daniel  O'Creidegain,  who  administered  the  last  rites  to 
Father  O'Devany,  was  elected  Provincial  in  1631,  and  continued 
in  office  beyond  the  usual  term  of  four  years.  Having  lost  his 
sight  and  fallen  into  bad  health,  he  was  received  into  the 
convent  of  Athenry  in  1641,  and  treated  there  with  great  kind- 
ness and  respect,  till  the  house  was  broken  up  under  the  pressure 
of  persecution,  when,  at  his  own  request,  he  was  sent  on  to  Bally- 
mote.  Very  probably  he  selected  this  asylum  because  there 
were  family  relations  between  his  family  and  that  of  the  Taaffes, 
who  then  owned  and  held  Ballymote  castle.  The  castle,  how- 
ever, having  been  taken  by  the  Parliamentary  forces  in  1652, 
Father  O'Creidegain  fell  into  their  hands ;  and  it  is  gratifying 
to  be  able  to  record,  as  it  proves  that  no  human  heart,  no  matter 
how  hardened,  is  always  impervious  to  a  feeling  of  compassion, 
that  Sir  Charles  Coote  not  only  spared  his  life,  but,  sympathizing 
with  him  in  his  misery,  sent  him  on,  under  a  safe  conduct,  to 
Sligo,  and  ordered  every  house  in  the  town  to  contribute  four 
pence  a  year  towards  his  maintenance  while  he  lived.  The 
good  man  was  so  attached  to  his  habit  that  nothing  in  the  world 
could  induce  him  to  put  it  off.  Clad  in  it  he  moved  through 
the  streets  day  after  day  ;  and,  it  is  told,  that  those  who  differed 
from  him  in  religion,  instead  of  resenting  the  proceeding  or 
molesting  him  in  any  way  for  it,  only  thought  all  the  more  of  him 


264  HISTORY  OF  SL1GO. 


for  his  consistency  and  constancy.  Though  disabled  by  blind- 
ness and  poor  health  from  doing  much  that  he  desired  to  do,  he 
still  managed  to  render  valuable  service  to  the  cause  of  religion, 
by  begging  alms  from  the  charitable  throughout  the  country, 
and  employing  the  large  sums  thus  received,  in  supplying  suit- 
able food  to  persons  imprisoned  on  account  of  their  faith.  He 
was  the  Daniel  Creidegain,  Clerk,  mentioned  in  Lady  Desmond's 
will  for  a  legacy  of  £20,  which,  like  the  other  sums  that  came  into 
his  hands,  went,  no  doubt,  to  the  relief  of  the  imprisoned 
confessors.  Father  Creidegain  died  in  1655,  and  carried  with 
him  to  his  grave  in  the  convent  of  Holy  Cross,  not  only  the  love 
and  veneration  of  Catholics,  but  the  respect  and  admiration  of 
all  who  knew  him,  whatever  was  their  religion. 

4.  John  O'Hart,  of  Holy  Cross,  Sligo,  was  instituted 
Provincial  of  the  Irish  Dominicans,  in  1660,  and  was  continued 
in  that  position  by  the  Master  General  of  the  Order  to  1669, 
partly  because  it  was  hard  to  assemble  a  chapter  for  the  election 
of  a  new  Provincial  at  the  end  of  Father  O'Hart's  first  term  of 
office,  and,  partly,  because  the  Master  General  wished  to  mark, 
by  re-appointing  him  for  a  second  term,  his  appreciation  of  the 
Father's  great  personal  worth.  That  this  Provincial  was  a 
person  of  more  than  ordinary  learning  and  culture,  is  sufficiently 
proved  by  his  distinguished  career.  After  completing  with 
great  applause  his  studies  at  Placentia,  in  Spain,  he  passed 
most  of  his  time  in  teaching  in  colleges  and  other  institutions  of 
learning.  He  taught  the  Humanities  in  the  Convent  of 
Borrishoole,  lectured  on  Philosophy  for  three  years  at  Athenry, 
and  was  head  professor  of  Theology  for  a  long  time  in  Kilkenny. 
When  the  great  Catholic  Confederation  was  formed  in  that 
city,  Father  O'Hart  gained  the  confidence,  esteem,  and 
admiration  of  the  Confederates,  both  laymen  and  ecclesiastics, 
by  the  prudence  of  his  counsels,  as  well  as  by  the  eloquence  of 
his  sermons,  and  the  honour  and  integrity  of  his  life,  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  trials,  which  he  and  others  had  to  go  through 
in  these  trying  times.  Nor  did  the  close  of  the  Cromwellian 
regime,  and  the  restoration  of  the  King,  put  an  end  to  his 


HISTORY   OF  SLK30.  265 


troubles.  Quite  the  reverse  ;  for  after  escaping  Cromwell,  he 
fell  in  with  Rev.  Peter  Walsh,  who,  though  a  priest  and  a  friar 
like  himself,  proved  to  him,  either  wittingly  or  unwittingly,  a 
deadlier  enemy  than  either  Cromwell  or  Cromwell's  agents. 
Father  Walsh  was  a  man  of  ability,  learning,  and  energy,  and 
with  the  confidence  and  friendship  of  Ormonde,  which  he 
certainly  possessed,  he  became  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the 
complicated  religious  movements  of  the  period.  His  name  is 
more  particularly  associated  with  a  protestation,  or,  as  it  is  com- 
monly called,  a  "  remonstrance  "  of  loyalty — a  kind  of  petition 
or  memorial  by  which  the  subscribers  declared  and  explained 
their  duty  towards  the  King — and  which,  if  he  did  not  originally 
draw  it  up,  he  at  least  adopted,  and  had  presented  by  the 
Duke  of  Ormonde  to  Charles  II.,  after  it  was  signed  by  "  sixty- 
nine  of  the  clergy,  secular  and  regular ;  five  earls,  six  viscounts, 
two  barons,  twenty-four  colonels  and  baronets,  and  sixty  esquires 
and  gentlemen." 

The  wording  of  this  document  which;  to  say  the  least,  is 
open  to  weighty  objection,  gave  offence  to  the  majority  of  the 
bishops  and  priests  ;  and  when  the  Duke  of  Ormond  set  Walsh 
to  work  to  induce  the  clergy  to  sign  it,  they  refused,  for  the 
most  part.  In  a  short  time  the  Remonstrance  occasioned  every- 
where divisions  and  factions,  so  that  both  clergy  and  laity 
were  divided  into  Remonstrants  and  An ti- Remonstrants.  In 
the  meantime  Father  O'Hart  despatched  the  document  to 
Salamanca  and  Complutum  (Alcala  de  Henares),  and  solicited 
the  opinion  of  the  eminent  universities  of  these  places  on  its 
orthodoxy — a  proceeding  which  gave  such  offence  to  the  Duke 
of  Ormonde,  that  he  had  the  Provincial  forthwith  arrested,  and 
lodged,  with  two  other  priests,  Fathers  Christopher  Farrell 
and  Raymond  Moore,  in  the  gaol  of  Dublin,  in  which  they  were 
treated  with  such  severity  and  cruelty,  that  they  had  to  sleep 
without  bed  or  bedding  of  any  kind,  on  the  hard  earthen  floor, 
where  they  had  their  feet  often  gnawed  by  rats,  as  one  of  them 
informed  the  historian  O'Heyne.  It  was  only  after  passing 
three  years  in  this  horrid  prison,  Father  O'Hart  was  released, 


266  HISTOKY   OF   SL1GO. 


and  not  even  then  till  he  gave  heavy  bail  to  appear  in  court 
when  called  on.  Walsh  is  commonly  charged  with  being  the 
prime  cause  of  this  treatment  of  the  three  religious ;  but  it  is 
only  fair  to  remark,  that  those  who  make  the  charge  adduce  no 
direct  proof  of  it,  and  base  it  always  on  the  notoriously  intimate 
relations  between  him  and  Ormonde. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  his  provincialate,  when  he  was  at 
liberty,  Father  O'Hart  occupied  himself  in  repairing  the  evils 
done  to  religion  by  the  Cromwellian  persecutions.  Finding,  on 
entering  office,  not  a  single  house  of  his  Order  surviving  in 
Ulster,  he  sent  Father  Dominick  O'Connor,  of  the  Sligo 
Convent,  to  that  province  to  labour  for  the  re-introduction  there 
of  the  Order;  a  mission  in  which  this  zealous  Father  was 
eminently  successful,  though  he  had  arrayed  against  him,  not 
only  those  who  differed  from  him  in  religion,  but  some  lay 
Catholics,  and,  more  especially,  certain  Franciscans,  who,  having 
reached  the  North  before  Father  O'Connor,  resented  his  efforts 
to  re-establish  the  Dominicans  as  an  injury  to  themselves.  The 
controversy  continuing,  it  was  carried  eventually  to  Rome,  and 
having  been  referred  by  the  Holy  See  to  the  Primate,  who  was 
then  Oliver  Plunket,  he  decided  in  favour  of  the  Dominicans. 

Father  O'Hart's  zeal  was  as  active  in  the  other  regions  of  the 
country  as  in  the  North.  One  instance  of  the  good  works  he 
was  everywhere  promoting  may  be  mentioned  here  to  give  an 
idea  of  their  nature.  Seeing  popular  education  at  a  stand,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Athenry,  for  want  of  schoolmasters,  he  directed 
two  Friars  of  his  Order,  Father  Thomas  Tully,  and  Father 
Cornelius  McMahon,  to  open  school  in  a  secluded  spot  of  that 
district.  Both  were  men  of  great  learning ;  one  of  them,  Father 
McMahon,  being  said  to  know  by  heart  a  large  part  of  St. 
Thomas's  voluminous  works ;  and  yet,  those  highly  cultivated 
men  were  happy  to  accept  the  duty  assigned  them,  and  to  con- 
tinue for  ten  years  the  lowly  drudgery  of  teaching  this  school, 
surrounded,  it  is  said,  by  three  hundred  pupils. 

While  Father  O'Hart  was  so  efficient  and  sedulous  in  the 
performance  of  his  official  duties,  he  employed  such  moments, 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  267 


as  he  had  to  himself,  in  private  study.  He  had  a  special  turn 
for  Irish  History  and  Antiquities,  and  left  some  writings  on  the 
subject,  which  O'Heyne  calls,  Memorialia  (Memorials),  and 
which,  unfortunately,  appear  to  have  been  lost.  O'Heyne,  in  the 
Epylogus  Chronologicus,  says  of  him,  "Father  O'Hart  was  a 
most  diligent  student  of  the  Antiquities  of  Ireland ;  and  if  I 
could  lay  my  hand  on  his  Memorialia,  I  should  give  more 
satisfaction  to  the  readers  of  those  short  notes  than  I  now  can." 
And  De  Burgo,  after  citing  those  words  of  O'Heyne,  says,  on  his 
own  part,  "  Would  that  I  at  least  had  near  me  the  productions 
of  so  eminent  a  student  of  our  antiquities,  whom,  alas,  so  very 
few  Irishmen  try  to  imitate."  Perhaps  the  writer  of  the  present 
lines  on  the  convent  of  Sligo  may  be  allowed,  in  the  interest  of 
the  convent,  to  add  his  regret  to  the  regrets  of  O'Heyne  and 
De  Burgo ;  for  if  Father  O'Hart's  Memorials  came  down  to  our 
times,  they  would  cast  a  light  on  the  history  of  Holy  Cross 
house,  which  nothing  can  now  shed. 

5.  Father  Ambrose  O'Connor,  a  member  of  the  O'Connor 
Sligo  family,  a  child  of  the  Sligo  convent,  and  a  Master  in 
Theology,  was  instituted  Provincial  of  Ireland,  in  1700,  by  the 
Master  General  of  the  Order,  and  continued  in  office,  for  two 
terms,  till  1709.  Having  joined  the  Order  in  Ireland,  he  made 
his  studies  in  Spain,  and  exhibited  such  talents,  learning,  and 
aptitude  for  business,  that  he  was  appointed  Procurator  General 
to  the  court  of  Madrid  for  the  Irish  Dominicans,  an  office 
which  he  held  for  thirty  years,  and  in  which  he  gave  the 
greatest  satisfaction  to  his  brethren,  as  well  as  to  the  Spanish 
authorities.  On  becoming  Provincial  he  proceeded  privately 
to  Ireland,  to  visit  the  members  of  his  Order,  and  found  their 
number  reduced  to  ninety  Fathers,  who  were  scattered  in 
different  hiding  places  through  the  country,  from  which  they 
served  the  neighbouring  districts,  and  five  others  who  were  in 
prison  for  the  faith,  all  the  rest  having  been  banished  from  the 
country  in  1698,  under  the  Act  of  7  and  9  William  III. 
Father  O'Connor  remained  in  Ireland  for  four  years,  which 
he  passed  not  only  in  animating  his  own  brethren  to  new 


268  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


labours  and  sacrifices  for  religion,  but  also  in  ministering  to 
the  people,  and  exhorting  them  to  patience  and  perseverance 
amid  their  manifold  afflictions.  His  duties  calling  him  away, 
he  left  Ireland  in  1704,  after  escaping  countless  attempts 
to  capture  him  ;  for  the  agents  of  the  government,  knowing 
him  to  be  in  the  country,  were  constantly  in  search  of  him 
while  he  remained.  On  returning  to  the  Continent  he  drew  up 
a  description  of  the  state  of  Ireland,  which  he  first  presented 
under  the  form  of  a  petition,  or  Memorials,  to  Pope  Clement 
XL,  and  afterwards  published,  as  a  pamphlet,  with  the  title  : 
"  De  prgesenti  Hiberniae  sub  Acatholico  jugo  statu,  Anno 
1704,  in  quo  tria  prsesertim  exponuntur  ;  Primo,  Fidem  et 
Pacta  Limericensia  violari ;  Secundo,  Crthodoxam  extirpari 
Religionem ;  Tertio,  S.  Sedis  Venerationem  in  nihilum 
redigi."  "  The  present  condition  of  Ireland  under  the  Heretics, 
in  the  year  1704 ;  showing  that  they  are  violating  the  Articles 
of  Limerick,  extirpating  the  true  religion,  and  destroying  devo- 
tion to  the  Holy  See."  We  are  informed  that  Father  O'Connor 
addressed  some  "  Memorial  "  to  Mary  of  Modena,  the  Queen  of 
James  II.,  but  whether  it  was  a  copy  of  the  preceding  pamphlet, 
or  a  separate  production,  is  not  stated.  For  what  he  published, 
such  as  it  is,  he  is  classed  by  Echard  and  De  Burgo  among 
Dominican  writers  or  authors,  and  is,  unfortunately,  the  only 
Sligo  Dominican  so  classed. 

At  his  death,  which  took  place  at  London  about  1710,  he  was 
bishop  designate  of  Ardagh.  This  is  all  that  is  recorded  of 
Father  O'Connor.  It  is  not  known  whether  he  visited  Sligo 
during  his  four  years'  stay  in  Ireland,  but,  if  he  did,  it  is  ex- 
tremely probable,  he  found  the  state  of  the  Dominicans  there 
more  desperate  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  As  was  men- 
tioned above,  the  convent  of  Sligo,  during  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  enjoyed  exceptional  security,  so  that  while  the 
Friars  Preachers  of  other  places  had  to  quit  the  country,  or 
go  into  hiding  places,  those  of  Sligo  continued  in  tranquil 
possession  of  Holy  Cross.  Nor  does  it  appear,  that  the  Sligo 
religious  were  as  much  disturbed  as  others,  even  under  James  I., 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  269 


and  Charles  I.,  except  perhaps  for  a  short  while  after  the 
death  of  Father  O'Devany  ;  for  we  learn  from  the  Depositions 
regarding  ]  641,  that  they  occupied  the  convent  that  year ;  and 
from  the  account  of  Sir  Frederic  Hamilton's  raid  in  1642  that 
they  were  in  occupation  at  that  date  too.  No  doubt,  they  were 
dispersed  in  the  terrible  period  of  Cromwell  and  the  Common- 
wealth, when,  of  600  Dominicans,  scarcely  one  remained ;  but, 
under  the  Restoration,  they  came  back  to  Holy  Cross  ;  and  that 
they  were  there  in  1687,  we  learn  from  the  Deed  of  Partition 
of  the  Sligo  Estates,  between  Strafford,  Leslie,  and  Wilson,  in 
which  there  is  mention  of  "  the  abbey  in  possession  of  the 
Fryars,  paying  thereout  to  his  Majesty  twelve  shillings  per 
annum."  It  may  be  said  then  that,  with  the  exception  of  the 
time  from  1653  to  1660,  the  Friars  continued  to  occupy  the 
convent  all  through  up  to  the  reign  of  William  III. ;  though,  as 
the  persecution  was  of  an  intermittent  character,  and  had  its 
moments  of  paroxysm,  as  at  the  death  of  Father  O'Devany, 
they  may  have  been  obliged  more  than  once  to  disappear  from 
view,  and  remain  out  of  sight  till  the  crisis  had  passed. 

One  of  those  paroxysms  occurred  during  the  Popish  Plot,  or, 
as  it  was  more  commonly  called  in  Sligo,  the  Shaftesbury  Plot, 
so  named  from  the  notorious  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  the  first 
earl  of  Shaftesbury,  the  chief  abettor,  if  not  the  author,  of  its 
worst  impostures.  In  those  dreadful  days  the  Dominicans  fled 
in  panic  from  their  convent;  and  the  Prior,  Father  Felix 
O'Connor,  whose  great  age  left  him  little  able  to  fly  from  the 
danger,  even  if  he  were  inclined  to  do  so,  was  arrested,  and 
thrown  into  Sligo  gaol,  where,  worn  out  with  suffering,  he  died 
in  1679,  secluded  from  all  human  society,  the  persecution  being 
then  "  so  cruel  and  vigorous  that  none  of  his  brethren  could 
come  near  him  and  assist  him." 

The  friars  returned  to  the  convent  when  the  villainy  of  Oates 
and  his  confederates  was  discovered,  but  broke  up  house  finally 
in  the  year  1698,  under  the  operation  of  the  7th  of  William  the 
Third,  which  enacts  that  "All  Popish  archbishops,  bishops, 
vicars -general,  deans,  Jesuits,  monks,  friars,  and  all  other 


270  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


regular  popish  clergy,  and  all  papists  exercising  any  ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction,  shall  depart  this  kingdom  before  the  1st 
of  May,  1698.  And  if  any  of  them  shall  be  at  any  time  after 
the  said  day  within  the  kingdom,  they  shall  be  imprisoned,  and 
remain  there  without  bail  till  they  be  transported  beyond  the 
seas  out  of  the  king's  dominions,  wherever  the  king,  his  heirs, 
or  successors,  or  chief  governors  of  this  kingdom  shall  think  fit. 
And  if  any  so  transported,  shall  return  again  into  this  kingdom, 
then  to  be  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  to  suffer  accordingly. 
And  from  the  29th  December,  1697,  no  popish  archbishop, 
bishop,  vicar-general,  dean,  Jesuit,  monk,  friar,  or  other  regular 
popish  clergy  shall  come  into  this  kingdom  from  any  parts 
beyond  the  seas,  on  pain  of  twelve  months'  imprisonment,  and 
then  to  be  transported  in  manner  aforesaid ;  and  if  after  such 
transportation,  any  of  them  return  again  into  this  kingdom,  they 
shall  be  guilty  of  high  treason  and  suffer  accordingly." 
c  The  circumstances  which  immediately  preceded  the  banishment 
or  transportation  of  the  Sligo  Dominicans  are  described  at  length 
and  with  touching  simplicity  and  earnestness  in  a  paper,  apparently 
a  letter,  drawn  up  at  Bilboa,  in  Spain,  in  the  year  1703,  by  Father 
Patrick  McDonough,  who  was  Prior  of  Sligo  at  the  date  of  the 
dissolution  or  suppression.  From  this  document,  which  is  now 
in  the  possession  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Order  in  Sligo,  we  learn 
that  the  calamities  of  the  times  had  brought  the  convent  so  low 
that  its  inmates  were  obliged  to  "  live  in  a  mean  condition,  and 
from  hand  to  mouth,  the  country  and  their  benefactors  being 
reduced,  and  charity  being  very  cold  in  the  hearts  of  Christians." 
Having  lost  by  the  wars  the  only  regular  income  belonging  to 
them,  a  small  annuity  of  £25  or  £30,  being  the  interest  accruing 
on  a  sum  of  £300  bequeathed  them  in  1668,  by  one  of  their  own 
brethren,  the  Rev.  Terence  or  Theodoricus  O'Connell,  who,  seeing 
the  great  need  of  priests  in  England,  had  served  on  the  English 
mission,  and  there  received  this  money  for  his  services,  they 
were  so  straitened  in  means  when  the  Act  of  Parliament, 
which  banished  them,  became  law  in  1697,  that  their  whole 
effects  would  not  pay  their  rent  and  other  debts.  "It  is  certain/' 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  271 


says  Father  McDonogh,  "  that  the  friars  of  Sligo  lost  all  their 
goods  and  effects  by  the  unhappy  wars  of  Ireland — only  their 
chalices  and  ornaments — and  were  very  poor,  and,  though  they 
came  to  a  head  in  the  country  they  lived  in  a  mean  condition, 
having  but  from  the  hand  to  the  mouth,  by  reason  we  could 
benefit  nothing  by  our  mortgage,  and  the  country  and  our  bene- 
factors were  reduced,  and  charity  was  very  cold  in  the  hearts  of 
Christians.  And,  when  we  were  forced  to  break  house  and 
homejby  the  Act  of  Parliament,  our  small  effects  could  not  pay 
our  rent  and  debts." 

Nothing  better  shows  the  depth  of  their  misery  than  the 
means  they  were  obliged  to  employ  to  relieve  it,  which  was  to 
sell  their  chalices.  It  is  only  in  the  last  resort  that  such  an  act 
becomes  lawful ;  but,  that  it  is  sometimes  lawful,  we  learn  both 
from  the  example  of  St.  Laurence,  who  disposed  thus  of  the 
sacred  vessels  of  the  altar,  and  from  the  teaching  of  Saint 
Ambrose,  who,  after  referring  to  the  case  of  Saint  Laurence, 
and  pointing  out  one  or  two  similar  instances,  concludes  thus: — 
"  In  these  cases  it  is  lawful  to  break  to  pieces,  to  melt  down,  or 
to  sell,  the  vessels  of  the  church,  even  after  consecration." 

Having  then  no  other  resources,  either  in  possession  or 
prospect,  the  inmates  of  Holy  Cross,  after  anxious  deliberation, 
found  themselves  forced  to  the  resolution  of  parting  with  their 
chalices ;  but  they  did  not  arrive  at  this  resolution  without  the 
sanction  of  their  superiors  ;  for  the  Provincial  of  Ireland,  in 
view  of  the  hopeless  condition  of  things,  had  authorized  all  the 
houses,  under  his  jurisdiction,  to  dispose  of  the  sacred  vessels,  if 
the  prior  and  conventuals  of  each  house,  after  taking  counsel 
together,  agreed  that  so  extreme  a  proceeding  was  necessary. 
"  There  was  a  general  licence,"  writes  Father  McDonogh,  *'  given 
by  the  Provincial  of  Ireland,  to  every  prior  to  dispose  of  all  the 
goods  and  chalices  of  every  convent,  with  the  mutual  consent  of 
his  conventuals,  as  he  thought  more  expedient  and  convenient 
for  the  present  necessity  and  for  the  future.  The  fathers  of 
the  convent  of  Sligo,  having  no  other  effects  or  worldly  means 
but  their  chalices,  they  agreed  unanimously  to  dispose  of 


272  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


some  of  their  chalices  to  redeem  their  present  necessity,  and 
found  it  more  proper  and  lawful  before  God  and  the  world  to 
make  use  of  them,  than  to  perish  in  foreign  countries,  not  know- 
ing to  what  part  of  the  universe  would  they  he  driven,  nor  what 
reception  would  they  get  amongst  strangers/'  Nor  did  they 
take  this  step  till  they  had  tried  in  vain  all  other  expedients. 
"  It  is  certain,"  adds  Father  McDonogh,  "  before  we  agreed  to 
dispose  of  our  chalices,  I  took  all  the  means  possible  to  get  a 
sum  of  money  from  our  trustee,  Mr.  Coll.  Keogh,  upon  the 
account  of  our  mortgage,  to  put  ourselves  in  a  way  to  leave  the 
kingdom." 

But  Mr.  Coll.  Keogh,  being  a  dishonest  man,  and  knowing 
that  the  friars  had  no  legal  remedy,  as  they  could  not  show  their 
faces  in  the  law  courts,  resolved  to  rob  them,  since  he  could  do 
so  with  impunity.  It  was  in  vain  Father  McDonogh,  in  an 
interview  he  had  with  this  trustee,  sought  to  get  from  him  the 
legal  instrument  that  proved  the  debt ;  for  the  moment  the 
cheat  saw  the  friar's  object,  he  rushed  out  of  his  presence  with 
the  document,  and  never  appeared  there  again.  Despairing  of 
being  able  by  himself  to  bring  Keogh  to  book,  poor  Father 
McDonogh,  like  other  Catholics  of  the  time,  when  in  trouble, 
had  recourse  to  the  famous  Counsellor,  Terence  McDonogh,  for 
help ;  and  to  enable  the  Counsellor  to  prosecute  the  suit,  the 
friar  made  over  to  him  in  due  form  the  Convent's  claims  or 
interests,  receiving  some  money  as  the  consideration ;  but  that 
nothing  came  of  the  proceeding,  and  that  the  defaulter  got  the 
better  of  the  Counsellor,  as  he  did  of  the  friars,  we  may  infer 
from  the  fact,  that  Father  McDonogh  returned  the  money  given 
him  for  the  consideration,  as  the  good  priest  informs  us  in  the 
following  portion  of  his  narrative  : — "  I  gave  Mr.  Keogh  a  meet- 
ing in  the  .County  of  Eoscommon,  in  April  '98,  and  another  in 
the  County  of  Galway,  much  about  the  same  time,  desiring  him 
to  bring  the  deed  and  our  papers,  for  I  did  resolve  to  take  the 
deed  out  of  his  hand  by  civil  ways  for  fear  of  the  worse  ;  and 
though  he  appeared  according  to  his  promise,  when  he  under- 
stood I  did  resolve  to  take  the  deed  out  of  his  hands,  he  run'd 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  273 


(ran)  away  with  the  deed,  and  never  saw  a  sight  of  him  since. 
By  this  deceitful  and  vile  action  he  discovered  his  aims,  and  to 
hinder  any  design  he  might  have  for  the  future,  after  consulting 
and  considering  the  matter  seriously  with  the  fathers,  I  sold  all 
our  interest  to  Councellor  Terence  McDonogh,  in  Gal  way,  before 
we  were  confined,  and  gave  him  a  deed  of  our  interest  in  full 
form  of  law,  signed,  sealed,  and  delivered,  by  myself  and  the 
rest  of  the  fathers,  and  received  money,  as  it  was  agreed,  for  the 
same  interest,  in  presence  of  good  witnesses,  both  Roman 
Catholics  and  Protestants.  All  this  was  performed,  for 
I  paid  the  money  back  to  prevent  Mr.  Keogh's  proceed- 
ings." 

We  have,  in  the  conduct  of  Keogh,  an  instance  of  an  evil, 
which  must  have  proved  ruinous  to  several  persons  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries.  When  Catholics,  whether 
secular  or  religious,  were  disabled  by  law  from  holding  real 
estate,  they  often  tried  to  evade  the  law  by  vesting  their  property 
in  trustees,  who  were  sometimes  Catholics,  as  in  this  case,  and 
sometimes  Protestants.  It  would  appear  that  these  trustees 
were  generally  faithful  to  their  trust ;  and  O'Connell  loved  to 
tell  of  a  Protestant  tailor  of  Kerry,  who  was  trustee  for  most  of 
the  Catholic  estates  of  Munster,  and  who  performed  the  duties 
of  his  position  with  fidelity  and  honour  worthy  of  a  prince.  Bat 
that  there  was  a  reverse  to  the  picture,  this  case  of  Keogh,  and 
another,  mentioned  in  the  History  of  Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet, 
abundantly  prove.  Had  Keogh  any  just  claim  to  be  relieved 
from  the  obligation  of  payment,  Father  McDonogh  would  not 
have  pressed  him,  as  he  did  not  press  another  gentleman,  Mr. 
French,  who  was  joined  with  Keogh  in  the  transaction,  and  of 
whom  he  writes,  "  I  did  consider  that  it  was  not  lawful,  in  con- 
science, to  oblige  the  honest  gentleman  to  pay  us  our  interest 
during  the  time  he  was  out  of  the  possession  of  the  estate." 
What  a  pity  this  Mr.  Keogh  did  not  take  a  lesson  from  Father 
McDonogh,  who  employed  the  first  money  he  received  on  the 
chalices  and  other  effects,  in  paying  the  debts  of  the  convent. 
"  When  I  had  licence,"  says  he,  "  to  dispose  of  the  effects  of  the 
VOL.  I.  s 


274  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


convent  for  the  friars  use  and  necessity,  I  found  it  an  obligation 
of  conscience  to  pay  our  lawful  debts." 

Those  who  desire  to  know  more  of  the  exodus  of  the  friars 
from  Sligo,  in  1698,  would  do  well  to  read  for  themselves  the 
narrative  of  Father  McDonogh,  which  they  will  find  entire  in  the 
Appendix.  It  is  little  wonder  that  the  paper  has  been  carefully 
preserved  by  the  Dominican  fathers  of  Sligo,  for  it  reflects  great 
honour  on  their  convent,  as  well  by  the  facts  which  it  records, 
as  by  the  spirit  which  it  breathes  in  every  sentence.  Calm 
resignation  under  the  doom  of  perpetual  banishment ;  forgetful- 
ness  of  self ;  solicitude  for  "  the  common  good  and  interest  of 
the  convent;"  attachment  to  the  "old  walls"  of  Holy  Cross; 
sensitiveness  of  conscience,  that  enforces  the  payment  of  debts 
even  when  undemanded  and  at  the  risk  of  starvation  ;  sacrifice 
of  all  personal  advantages  to  the  honour  and  interests  of  the 
Order :  these,  and  their  kindred  virtues,  are  proved  by  every  line 
to  have  been  the  common  possession  of  Prior  McDonogh  and  his 
conventuals.  In  such  circumstances  the  good  fathers,  as  they 
were  borne  away  in  the  transport  ship,  after  having  lost  their 
country,  their  convent,  and  their  worldly  means,  might  well 
say  with  Francis  I.,  and  in  a  loftier  sense,  "  Tout  est  perdu  fors 
I'honneur" 

Of  course,  as  happens  in  other  parts  of  Ireland  where  there 
are  ruined  churches  or  monasteries,  the  [people  have  their 
legend  about  Holy  Cross  bell ;  and  they  tell  you  that  it  was 
made  of  silver,  that  it  lies  on  the  bottom  of  Loughgill,  where  it 
was  deposited  by  Prior  McDonogh  to  await  better  times,  and 
that  it  still  gives  forth,  on  special  occasions,  its  silvery  notes, 
which,  however*  none  but  the  perfect  are  privileged  to  hear. 
Some  such  legends,  regarding  church  bells  and  royal  crowns,  are 
common  in  other  countries  as  well  as  in  Ireland  ;  and  in  one  of 
Uhland's  songs  we  have  the  following  reference  to  a  sunken 
crown : — 

"  Da  drunten  in  dem  grunde 

Da  dammert  langst  der  Teich 
Es  liegt  in  ihm  vorsunken 
Erne  Krone,  stolz  und  reich  ; 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  275 


Sie  lasst  zu  Nacht  wohl  spielen. 

Karfunkel  und  Saphir, 
Sie  liegt  seit  grauen  Jahren 

Und  Niemand  sucht  nach  ihr." 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  there  is  no  list  extant  of  the  Priors 
of  Holy  Cross,  some  of  whom  must  have  been  men  worth 
remembering.  In  the  absence  of  any  record,  the  writer  thinks 
it  may  be  of  use  to  give  here,  in  chronological  order,  the  names 
of  such  Priors  as  he  has  come  across,  with  a  word  or  two  of 
biography  where  he  can,  leaving  to  others  to  add  new  names, 
and  to  enlarge  the  biographical  notices.  The  following  are  the 
names  he  has  met  with : — 

1.  Manus,  son  of  Baethghalach  MacEgan,  Prior  of  Sligo,  died, 
according  to  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  in  1411.     The  name  of  this 
prior  does  not  occur  either  in  the  Four  Masters  or  the  Hibernia 
Dominicana. 

2.  Brian,  the  son  of  Dermot  McDonogh,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
Prior  in  1416,  when  the  convent  was  restored  after  the  burning; 
His  name  is  given  in  the  Four  Masters,  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce, 
and  Hibernia  Dominicana. 

3.  The  next  Prior,  we  know  of,  is  Andrew  Crean,  or  O'Crean, 
who,  from  Prior  of  Sligo,  became  Bishop  of  Elphin.     He  was  a 
native  of  Sligo,  and  a  member  of  the  most  distinguished  family 
then  in  the  place,  after  that  of  the  O'Connors.     They  appear  to 
have  settled  in  Sligo  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  ; 
and  the  first  of  this  branch  of  whom  we  have  any  record,  is 
Cormac,  who  is  buried  in  the  beautiful  altar  tomb  which  stands 
in  the  nave  of  the  church,  and  which  bears  a  Latin  inscription, 
thus  rendered  by  Mr.  Langrishe,  the  distinguished   architect 
and  antiquary,  in  the  "  Kilkenny  Journal "  of  October,  1884  :— 

"Hie     .    jacet     .     Cormacus.     Ocraian     . 
Et      Ehon  ac     .     Nanangasa     .    uxor     . 
Eis    .    an0    Do,,    M<?CCCCC°VL" 

Here  lieth  Cormac  O'Craian, 

.     .     .     .     and  Nanangasa,  his  wife, 

The  year  of  the  Lord,  1506. 


276  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Originally  of  Tircoimell,  where  Donnell  O'Crean,  "a  rich, 
humane  merchant,  died  suddenly  while  hearing  mass  in  the 
monastery  of  Donegal,  in  1506,"  the  O'Creans  came,  probably 
in  the  wake  of  O'Donnell,  to  Sligo,  where  they  devoted  them- 
selves successfully  to  mercantile  pursuits,  as  the  Annals  of  the 
Four  Masters  record,  under  the  year  1572,  the  death  of  Henry 
O'Crean,  "  a  rich  and  affluent  merchant  of  Lower  Connaught," 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  other  members  of  the  family  were  not 
always  so  honourably  employed  as  these  merchants,  for  we  find 
"Baptist  Crean,  of  Sleegaugb,"  granted  in  1547/afeeof  12d.  a  day 
for  life,  by  Henry  the  Eighth,  which,  considering  the  date  of  the 
gift  and  the  character  of  the  giver,  is,  to  say  the  least,  a  suspi- 
cious transaction;  while  in  1593,  another  of  the  family,  James 
O'Crean,  appears  to  have  acted  as  spy  for  the  English  authorities 
against  some  Irish  bishops,  including  the  Primate,  Doctor 
Magauran.  If  these  men  were  as  guilty  as  they  look,  the 
infamy  belongs  to  themselves,  and  should  not  be  charged  on  the 
whole  O'Crean  family,  which,  indeed,  produced  men  as  honour- 
able and  virtuous  as  any  of  their  day. 

The  O'Creans  were  not  long  in  Sligo  when  they  began  to 
invest  money  in  land;  and  before  many  years  had  passed,  they 
held  landed  estate  not  only  near  the  town,  but  in  various  other 
parts  of  the  county.  Andrew  O'Crean  of  Annagh,  or  Hazel- 
wood,  who  was  the  head  of  the  family,  possessed  not  only 
Hazelwood  and  much  of  the  parishes  of  Carbury  and  St.  John, 
in  the  barony  of  Carbury,  but  also  considerable  stretches  of  land 
in  Leyney,  Tireragh,  and  Coolavin,  as  well  as  the  abbey  of 
Ballindoon,  in  the  barony  of  Tirerrill.  He  appears  to  have  died 
in  1641. 

Bishop  O'Crean,  who  was  probably  uncle  of  this  Andrew,  was 
Prior  of  Sligo  convent  in  1561,  when  Bernard  O'Higgins,  Bishop 
of  Elphin,  having  resigned  that  see  in  his  favour,  he  set  out  for 
Rome,  bearing  with  him  the  resignation,  and  a  letter  of  recom- 
mendation from  the  Very  Rev.  David  Wolf,  S.J.,  who,  like 
Monsignor  Persico  at  present,  was  then  acting  as  Apostolic 
Delegate  of  the  Holy  See  in  Ireland,  and  whose  word  was 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  277 


decisive  in  everything  that  regarded  the  administration  of  the 
Irish  church.  This  proceeding  of  the  Prior,  in  going  to  Rome 
on  such  an  errand,  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  conduct  of  a 
few  others  whom  we  read  or  hear  of — of  some,  who,  under  the 
influence  of  genuine  Christian  humility,  shrink,  in  reality  as  well 
as  in  seeming,  from  the  responsibility  of  the  episcopate ;  and  of 
others,  who,  perhaps,  from  "  the  pride  that  apes  humility,"  in 
dallying  with  offers  of  preferment,  are  only  indulging  personal 
vanity,  or  some  equally  unamiable  constitutional  idiosyncrasy; 
but  Dr.  O'Crean,  when  the  call  of  duty  came  to  him  later  on, 
proved  his  humility  and  other  virtues  by  voluntarily  laying  down 
his  dignity  and  becoming  a  simple  friar  again — a  proof  vastly 
more  satisfactory  than  any  amount  of  " Nolo  episcopari" 
professions. 

On  reaching  France,  in  the  journey  to  Rome,  Father  O'Crean 
fell  sick,  and  became  unable  to  proceed  further;  but  the  Pope, 
on  receiving  his  testimonials,  and  seeing  his  qualifications, 
issued  the  Brief  for  his  consecration,  which,  apparently,  took 
place  in  France,  though  this  is  not  expressly  mentioned.  The 
appointment  is  thus  recorded  in  the  Consistorial  Acts: — 
"Die  28°  Januarii,  1562:  referente  Cardinali  Morono,  Sua 
Sanctitas  providit  ecclesiae,  Elphinensi  in  Hibernia  vacanti 
per  resignationem  Reverendi  Domini  O'Higgins  (written 
O'Huyghiun,)  ordinis  Sancti  Augustini  professoris  de  persona 
Domini  Andrese  O'Crean,  Hiberni,  ordinis  Praedicatorum  Pro- 
fessoris, quern  R.  P.  David,  presbyter  Societatis  Jesu  in  Hibernia 
commorans  per  suas  litteras  commendavit." 

Unlike  his  predecessor,  Dr.  O'Higgins,  whose  self-will  and 
untractableness  of  temper  lost  him  the  esteem  of  the  people,  Dr. 
O'Crean  was  a  favourite  with  all  classes  in  his  diocese,  but 
more  particularly  with  the  native  inhabitants  of  Sligo,  who  were 
proud  of  him  as  one  of  themselves.  The  feeling  was  mutual, 
for  the  good  bishop  had  a  special  love  for  his  fellow  townsmen  ; 
and  among  the  benefits,  conferred  by  him  on  his  native  town, 
may  be  mentioned,  in  particular,  a  cross,  which  he  erected  at 
the  bottom  of  the  present  Market  Street,  from  which  that  portion 


278  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


of  the  town  is  called,  to  this  day,  Market  Cross,  though  people 
using  the  phrase  now  know  nothing  of  its  origin. 

In  thinking  of  market  crosses,  which  were  formerly  very 
numerous  in  England,  there  being  about  5,000  of  them  there 
before  the  Reformation,  and  not  rare  in  Ireland,  one  must  not 
conceive  of  them,  as  if  they  were  mere  naked  pieces  of  stone  or 
wood  in  the  form  of  a  cross ;  for  they  were  often  arched  and 
elaborate  stone  structures,  roomy  enough  to  afford  shelter  to 
the  market  people  upon  the  coming  on  of  rain,  so  that,  in  erecting 
this  Market  Cross,  Dr.  O'Crean  made  a  handsome  and  expensive 
present  to  the  people  of  Sligo.  And,  the  people  must  have  been 
the  more  grateful,  as  it  was  the  bishop's  own  money  that  paid 
for  it. 

A  drinking  fountain  may  have  been  combined  with  the 
market  cross,  for  the  combination  was  not  unusual ;  and  the 
discovery  of  a  well,  some  time  ago,  at  the  foot  of  Market  Street, 
on  the  spot  where  the  cross  stood,  makes  it  probable,  that  the 
fountain  was  a  part  of  the  structure. 

From  1562,  the  date  of  his  appointment,  to  1584,  Dr. 
O'Crean  seems  to  have  been  unmolested  by  the  State  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  episcopal  functions,  and  even  to  have  had  the 
formal  sanction  of  the  authorities  for  the  last  two  years  of  this 
period ;  but  being  summoned,  in  the  year  1584,  to  take  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  and  refusing,  says  Dr.  Lynch,  "  to  defile 
himself  by  such  a  sacrilegious  act,"  the  Government  set  him 
aside  as  far  as  they  could,  and  put  in  his  place  John  Lynch,  to 
whom,  of  course,  they  gave  the  temporalities  of  the  see.  Lynch 
was  an  unprincipled  hypocrite,  and  in  such  bad  odour  with  the 
people,  that  they  ascribed  to  his  presence  even  the  natural  evils 
which  befel  the  place  of  his  residence,  Grange  in  Magherow. 
"  There  was,"  says  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  "  a  wicked,  heretical 
bishop  in  Elphin,  and  God  performed  great  miracles  upon  him. 
And  his  place  of  residence  was  the  Grain sech  of  Magherow ; 
and  a  shower  of  snow  was  shed  for  him,  and  a  wild  apple  was 
not  larger  than  each  stone  of  it ;  and  not  a  grain  was  left  in  his 
town  ;  and  it  was  with  shovels  the  snow  was  removed  from  the 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  279 


houses ;  and  it  was  in  the  middle  month  of  Summer  that  shower 
fell."  Even  the  Protestants  came,  in  the  course  of  time,  to 
think  as  ill  of  him  as  the  Catholics,  and,  as  he  was  reconciled  to 
the  Church  before  his  death,  in  1611,  Ware  says  of  him,  "  He 
voluntarily  resigned  his  See,  on  the  19th  of  August,  1611, 
having  by  alienations,  fee  farms,  and  other  means,  so  wasted 
and  destroyed  it,  that  be  left  it  not  worth  200  marks  a  year. 
It  is  said,  he  lived  a  concealed,  and  died  a  public  Papist." 

"While  this  wretched  man  lived  amid  the  execrations  of  his 
neighbours,  Bishop  O'Crean  was  surrounded  by  the  love  and 
respect  of  all,  in  the  convent  of  Holy  Cross,  to  which  he  retired, 
in  1584,  and  in  which  he  lived,  a  model  of  every  virtue,  to 
1594,  when  he  went  to  his  reward.  He  was  buried,  of  course, 
in  the  convent,  though  this  is  not  stated ;  and  the  small  stone 
statue  of  a  bishop,  or  abbot,  with  crozier  in  hand,  which,  after 
having  been  removed  from,  its  proper  place,  now  stands  on  the 
slab  of  the  high  altar,  may  have  been  intended  to  perpetuate 
his  memory.  The  proper  place  of  this  statue  was,  no  doubt,  in 
the  buttress  of  the  east  cloister,  which  at  present  lacks  a  part  or 
member,  for  the  statue  exactly  fills  the  space  of  the  missing 
member.  It  is,  perhaps,  still  more  likely  that  the  statue  was 
intended  to  represent  Saint  Dominick,  the  founder  of  the  Order 
of  Friars  Preachers,  for  a  statue  of  Saint  Francis,  the  patriarch 
of  the  Franciscans,  occupies  an  analogous  position  in  one  of  the 
cloister  buttresses  of  Creevalea  Abbey. 

The  writer  is  pained  to  have  to  add,  that  having  just  been  to 
Holy  Cross  to  test  certain  measurements,  made  some  time  ago, 
he  found  the  buttress  of  the  east  cloister  gone,  though  existing  in 
fair  preservation  at  the  date  of  a  preceding  visit,  a  fact  which 
shows  the  alarming  rate  at  which  the  beauties  of  the  structure 
are  disappearing,  and  the  need  of  taking  prompt  and  vigorous 
action  to  stop  or  check  the  vandalism  in  progress. 

It  is  recorded  that  Doctor  O'Crean  had  a  special  devotion  to 
St.  Ursula,  and  her  virgin  companions. 

4.  Father  Dominick  O'Connor,  of  whom  mention  has  been 
already  made,  was  several  times  Prior  of  Holy  Cross  Convent. 


280  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


A  native  of  Sligo,  a  member  of  the  O'Connor  family,  an  alumnus 
of  Holy  Cross,  a  man  of  singular  zeal,  prudence,  and  piety,  and 
much  esteemed  for  his  family  connexions,  by  the,  leading  men 
of  the  North,  he  was  selected  by  the  Provincial,  as  the  fittest 
person  to  retrieve  the  interests  of  the  Dominicans  in  Ulster, 
and  the  great  success  with  which,  as  was  seen  above,  he  execu- 
ted this  difficult  and  delicate  mission,  amply  justified  the  choice. 
In  the  Provincial  Chapter,  held  in  Kilkenny,  in  1643,  Father 
O'Connor  acted  as  Definitor  for  Ulster.  It  is  told  of  him  that, 
though  he  naturally  stammered  in  his  speech,  the  moment  he 
ascended  the  pulpit,  the  defect  completely  disappeared,  so  that, 
he  always  spoke  with  ease  and  fluency,  the  subject  of  his 
sermons,  being  generally,  the  Rosary  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  to 
which  devotion  he  was  specially  attached.  Dear  to  his  brethren 
for  the  great  services  he  rendered  the  Order  in  Ulster,  and  still 
dearer  to  them  for  his  saintly  virtues,  his  death,  which  was  of 
a  piece  with  his  holy  life,  was  much  regretted  by  all  the 
Dominicans  of  Ireland.  He  died,  in  1675,  having  lived  to  an 
extreme  old  age. 

5.  Father  Felix  O'Connor,  who,  like  his  namesake  and 
relative,  Father  Dominick,  was  a  native  of  Sligo,  and  an 
alumnus  of  Holy  Cross,  passed  a  very  eventful  life,  and  suffered 
severely  for  the  faith.  After  completing  his  studies  in  Spain, 
he  returned  to  Ireland,  and  was  Prior,  first  of  the  Dominican 
Convent  of  Kilkenny,  and  next,  on  the  break  up  of  the  Catholic 
Confederation,  of  Burrishoole  Convent,  on  the  east  coast  of 
Clew  Bay.  This  establishment  was  repeatedly  attacked  by  the 
Cromwellians,  but  the  friars  and  some  soldiers  of  the  Confeder- 
ate army,  who  were  stationed  there,  repelled  successfully  two  of 
those  attacks,  but  on  a  third  assault,  in  which  the  Cromwellians 
exerted  all  their  strength,  they  carried  the  place,  put  all  the 
soldiers  to  the  sword,  and  captured  several  friars,  whom  they 
had  wounded,  and  who  were,  therefore,  unable  to  escape,  the 
others  having  fled  to  the  mountains.  Rather  than  fall  into  the 
hands  of  those  rabid  enemies,  to  whom  he  was  personally 
obnoxious,  and  from  whom  he  could  expect  no  quarter,  Father 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  281 


Felix,  with  one  little  boy,  stepped  on,  or  into,  a  small  raft  or 
skiff,  made  out  of  a  single  log  of  timber,  and,  commending  him- 
self and  his  companion  to  God,  pushed  away  to  sea,  and,  after 
a  hundred  miraculous  escapes,  succeeded  in  reaching  an  island, 
which  lay  sixteen  miles  from  shore,  and  to  which  some  Irish 
soldiers,  and  a  few  other  ecclesiastics  had  already  fled  for  safety. 
But  he  was  not  long  here,  when  seven  ships  and  twenty-two 
boats  of  the  victorious  enemy  surrounded  the  island ;  and  the 
ecclesiastics,  after  surrendering  without  resistance,  and  receiving 
the  alternative  offer  of  death  or  expatriation,  electing  to  leave 
the  country  and  live,  were  put  on  board  ship  and  transported 
to  Belgium. 

In  Belgium  he  settled  down  at  Louvain,  and  was  made  Prior  of 
the  Dominican  convent  there.  While  in  this  office  he  devoted  a 
great  part  of  his  time  to  the  care  of  the  Irish  exiles  who  followed 
the  fortunes  of  Charles  the  Second,  and  lived  about  the  prince. 
These,  it  is  said,  amounted  to  more  than  14,000  souls,  so  that 
Father  O'Connor  was  overwhelmed  with  work  in  attending  to 
the  spiritual  wants  of  so  large  a  number.  And  he  had  to  provide 
for  the  temporal  wants,  too,  of  a  great  many  who  depended  on 
the  convent  for  their  support.  To  meet  this  charge  he  preached 
charity  sermons,  which  were  largely  attended,  as  he  was  one  of 
the  most  gifted  preachers  of  the  time  ;  and  the  sums  thus  real- 
ized, which  were  considerable,  he  devoted  entirely  to  the 
maintenance  of  his  fellow  exiles,  whose  hotel  was  the  convent. 
It  was  thus  he  was  occupied,  all  through,  while  abroad,  with  the 
exception  of  the  time  employed  in  two  journeys,  one  from 
Louvain  to  Madrid,  and  the  other  from  Madrid  to  Home ;  the 
former  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  from  the  King 
of  Spain  his  sanction  of  an  annual  grant  of  1;000  florins  to  the 
convent  of  Louvain,  which  the  Belgian  authorities  had  already 
agreed  to  give ;  and  the  other,  having  for  its  object,  to  induce 
the  Congregation  of  Propaganda  to  provide  an  annual  pension 
for  the  education,  in  the  College  of  Louvain,  of  four  students, 
to  be  bound  by  oath  to  devote  themselves  to  the  Irish  mission. 
In  both  cases  the  good  Father  obtained  what  he  sought. 


282  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Returning  to  Ireland,  at  the  Restoration,  Father  Felix  was 
repeatedly  Prior  of  Holy  Cross,  and  once  Prior  of  Roscommon 
Convent.  As  on  the  Continent,  so  at  home,  he  was  assiduous 
in  preaching;  and  the  great  pains  he  took  to  prepare  himself  for 
this  all-important  work,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact,  recorded 
of  him,  that  he  had  by  heart  all  the  Homilies  of  the  distinguished 
preacher  and  writer,  Lanuza,  who  was  called  "the  Dominick 
of  his  age."  While  Father  O'Connor  was  equally  solemn,  and 
effective  in  the  pulpit,  he  was  lively  and  facetious  in  society ; 
thus  reminding  one  of  a  still  greater  Dominican,  Father  Tom 
Burke,  who  united  those  two  qualities  in  larger  proportions  than 
any  man  of  his  Order,  or  of  the  century.  Though  O'Heyne  and 
De  Burgo  relate  that  Father  O'Connor  died  in  Holy  Cross  about 
the  year  1686,  they  are  in  error,  for  Father  McDonogh,  his  con- 
temporary and  friend,  in  the  narrative  already  quoted,  but  which 
neither  O'Heyne  nor  De  Burgo  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing,  states 
expressly  that  "Father  Felix  O'Connor  died  a  prisoner  inSligoe 
in  the  heate  of  Shaftesberry's  Plott  the  yeare  1679."  In  the 
good  Father's  life  and  death  we  have  a  strong  illustration  of  the 
sufferings  which  priests  had  to  endure  in  his  day. 

6.  Father  Patrick  McDonogh,  the  author  of  the  Narrative, 
succeeded  as  Prior  on  Father  O'Connor's  death,  but  as  the 
persecution  continued  to  rage,  he  and  his  conventuals  had  to 
keep  out  of  the  way  for  some  time.  "  I  was  immediately  elected 
Prior/'  says  Father  McDonogh,  "  on  Father  O'Connor's  death, 
butt  the  rigour  of  the  persecution  was  soe  great  that  we  cud 
not  settle  ourselves  for  some  yeares  after."  Having  settled 
again  in  the  convent,  they  remained  there  during  the  reign  of 
James  II.,  sharing  largely  the  trouble  brought  on  the  town  by  the 
conflict  between  that  monarch  and  his  son-in-law,  William  of 
Orange.  They  held  on  to  the  house,  under  the  rule  of  William 
and  Mary,  for  it  was  only  in  1698,  when  William  alone 
was  on  the  throne,  took  place  the  final  break-up  of  the 
establishment,  as  we  learn  from  the  touching  account  of  that 
transaction  left  by  him,  of  whom  we  are  treating.  From  his 
banishment,  in  1698,  to  his  death,  which  happened  in  1705, 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  283 


Father  McDonogh  lived  in  the  Dominican  Convent,  of  Bilbao, 
in  Spain,  in  which  he  was  Vicar. 

Judging  from  what  he  has  written  himself,  and  from  what 
has  been  written  of  him  by  others,  he  was  a  man  of  the  rarest 
piety.  Christian  perfection  appears  in  every  word  that  dropped 
from  the  pen  in  his  Narrative  ;  and  in  writing  of  him  in  the  Epy- 
logus  Chronologicus,  Father  O'Heyne  regards  him  as  a  mirror  of 
virtue,  and  a  model  to  priest  and  people  in  everything.  This 
estimate  is  not  founded  on  hearsay,  hut  on  actual  observation, 
for  0  Heyne  was  a  contemporary  and  intimate  companion  of 
Father  McDonogh,  so  that  when  he  writes  of  him,  "  I  have 
never  seen  him  under  the  influence  of  the  slightest  anger, 
and  I  do  not  remember,  to  have  ever  met  a  meeker  man  in 
religion,"  we  have  testimony  beyond  all  exception.  And  that 
O'Heyne's  estimate  was  the  general  one,  we  may  infer  from 
what  he  tells  us,  that  in  the  great  convent  of  Salamanca,  both 
the  novices  and  the  fathers,  spoke  always  of  Father  McDonogh 
as  The  Angel.  Such  was  the  man  whom  the  unnatural  laws  of 
the  time  treated  as  worse  than  a  wild  beast. 

7.  Father   Michael   O'Connor  was  Prior  of  Holy   Cross  in 
King   James  the    Second's    reign :   but    Father   McDonogh's 
Narrative,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  this  information,  gives 
no  further  particulars. 

8.  On  Father  Michael  O'Connor's   death,  Father   Gregory 
Nellus  became  Prior.     There  is  little  known  of  the  Dominicans 
from  the  time  of  Prior  McDonogh  till  towards  the  close  of  the- 
eighteenth   century,   though   it  is  pretty  certain  that  one   or 
more  of  them  might  be  always  found  in  or  near  the  town.    From 
the  depositions  taken  by  Sligo  magistrates  in  1712,  and  quoted 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  we  learn  that  Rev.  James  Feighney,  a 
Regular,  who   in  the  words  of  the  deponent,  "  is,  or  is  to  be 
Prior  of  the    Dominican  convent  of  Sligoe,"   said   Mass  on 
several  occasions,  that  year,  in  the  convent ;  and  De  Burgo,  in 
Hibernia  Dominicana  (page  249)   states   that,  in  1757,  there 
were  five   fathers  of  the   Order  belonging  to  the  convent  of 
Sligo  though  hardly  living  there,  whose  names  and  ages  he 


284  HISTOKY   OF  SLIGO. 


gives  as  follows  : — Kev.  Edward  Geraldine,  Prior,  aged  33  ; 
Rev.  Ambrose  Gilgan,  aged  64 ;  Rev.  Michael  Hart,  aged  61  ; 
Rev.  Patrick  MacDonogh,  aged  38;  and  Rev.  Bartholomew 
Fergus,  aged  43. 

The  names  of  the  Priors,  who  intervened  between  1757  and 
1790,  when  Father  Bernard  Mullonay,  S.T.L.,  was  Prior,  have 
not  come  down  to  us.  Father  Mullonay's  successor  was  Father 
Dominick  Conlon,  after  whom,  according  to  a  list  kindly 
supplied  by  the  present  esteemed  Prior,  Father  Boylan,  came : — 
between  1796  and  1820,  Father  Thomas  Brennan,  Father 
Gilgan,  and  Father  Rochfort ;  between  1820  and  1834,  Father 
MacDermot,  Father  Fallen,  and  Father  Kane ;  in  1834, 
Father  T.  D.  Hibhetts  ;  in  1837,  Father  B.  J.  Goodman ;  in 
1840,  Father  P.  Kelly;  in  1841,  Father  T.  D.  Hibbetts  ;  and 
from  that  date  to  1884,  when  the  present  Prior  was  elected, 
Father  Goodman  and  Father  Hibbetts  filled  the  office  alter- 
nately. 

"We  may  close  this  notice  of  the  Priors  of  Holy  Cross  with 
a  few  words  on  Dr.  Goodman,  the  last  deceased  Prior  of  the 
convent,  as  it  might  appear  unbecoming  to  treat  of  living 
Priors,  or  ex-Priors,  mindful  of  the  fact,  that  Ecclesiasticus 
cautions  us  against  praising  any  man  before  death,  and  of  the 
other  fact,  that  one  could  not  speak  either  of  Doctor  Hibbetts 
or  Father  Boylan  except  in  terms  of  the  highest  praise. 

Dr.  Goodman  was  born  about  the  year  1810,  in  the  county 
Galway,  where  he  received  his  early  education.  Feeling  a  call 
to  a  religious  life,  and  to  the  order  of  Saint  Dominick,  he  set 
out  in  his  sixteenth  year  for  the  Continent  and  made  his 
noviciate  there,  giving,  even  then,  abundant  proof  of  the  tender 
piety  and  distinguished  talent  for  which  he  was  noted  through 
life.  The  noviciate  over,  his  superiors  employed  him  on  the 
Irish  mission,  and  after  some  little  time  sent  him  to  Holy  Cross, 
Sligo,  where  he  passed  the  last  forty  years  of  his  life. 

Elected  Provincial  of  the  Irish  province  in  1864,  he  passed, 
while  filling  that  high  office,  much  of  his  time,  in  visiting  the 
Dominican  houses  of  the  country,  and  left  after  him,  wherever 


HISTOKY  OF   SLIGO.  285 


he  sojourned,  the  reputation  of  a  zealous,  able,  prudent,  far- 
seeing,  and  withal  as  gentle  a  superior  as  ever  ruled  the  Domi- 
nican province  of  Ireland. 

Those  who  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  Dr.  Goodman,  and  could 
appreciate  him,  were  always  struck  hy  his  great  natural  and 
acquired  gifts.  Deeply  versed  in  the  ecclesiastical  sciences  ;  a 
scripturist,  a  canonist,  and  a  Master  in  Theology ;  a  successful 
student  of  natural  science ;  a  brilliant  conversationist,  his  voice 
being  singularly  sweet  and  sonorous ;  with  a  turn  for  the 
arts,  both  liberal  and  mechanical ;  and  with  a  large  acquaint- 
ance with  the  literature  of  the  day  :  Dr.  Goodman  should  be 
admired,  for  his  qualities  and  culture,  in  any  society  in  which  he 
mixed.  And  to  his  other  talents  was  joined  a  natural  eloquence 
of  a  high  order,  which  enabled  him,  if  need  were,  to  extem- 
porize at  his  ease.  Of  this  faculty,  an  instance,  or  illustration, 
may  be  mentioned. 

Some  time  ago,  on  a  Saint  Dominick's  day,  the  priest  selected 
to  preach  the  panegyric  of  the  saint  informed  Dr.  Goodman  at 
the  last  moment,  of  his  inability  to  perform  the  duty,  owing  to 
circumstances  beyond  his  control.  The  communication  was  made 
to  the  good  Prior  almost  at  the  very  hour  fixed  for  the  sermon. 
What  could  he  do  in  the  situation  thus  sprung  upon  him? 
Would  he  announce  that  there  could  be  no  panegyric  that  day, 
and  leave  to  somebody  else  the  responsibility  of  the  disappoint- 
ment ?  Most  other  people  in  the  circumstances,  rather  than 
encounter,  without  a  moment's  preparation,  the  immense,  and,  in 
large  part,  critical  congregation,  of  both  priests  and  laity  assem- 
bled on  such  occasions,  would  dispense  with  the  sermon 
altogether,  even  at  the  cost  of  marring  the  solemnity,  and 
disappointing  the  pious  expectations  of  numbers  who  had  come 
great  distances  to  hear  the  praises  of  Saint  Dominick  pro- 
claimed ;  but  the  zealous  and  eloquent  Prior,  instead  of  doing 
what  so  many  others  would  do,  and  would  be  justified  in  doing, 
threw  himself  into  the  breach,  and  taking,  in  a  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice,  the  place  of  the  expected  preacher,  delivered  as  brilliant 
and  effective  a  panegyric  as  was  ever  heard  in  Holy  Cross  con- 


286  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


vent  on  the  Patron's  day,  though  the  pulpit  on  these  occasions 
was  sometimes  occupied  by  such  men  as  Father  Tom  Burke 
and  Right  Reverend  Doctor  Healy. 

Dr.  Goodman  built  the  existing  beautiful  church  of  Holy 
Cross,  in  1846,  from  a  design  of  Sir  John  Benson,  and,  a  few  years 
ago,  the  conventual  residence  now  attached  to  the  church.  Both 
structures  were  much  needed.  It  was  either  Father  Conlon  or 
Father  Thomas  Brennan — for  there  is  some  doubt  on  the  sub- 
ject— that  erected,  in  the  closing  decade  of  the  last  century,  in 
Pound  Street,  the  old  church  of  which  the  walls  still  stand, 
though  without  the  roof.  The  site,  with  a  lease  renewable  for 
ever,  was  granted  by  the  then  owner,  Mr.  Bruen,  of  Carlo  w. 
Before  this  church  was  built,  the  Dominican  Fathers  officiated 
in  a  stable,  which  still  exists  near  the  old  walls,  while,  strange 
to  say,  nearly  all  the  other  houses  of  the  same  date  have  dis- 
appeared from  the  neighbourhood.  The  Pound  Street  Church, 
like  most  other  places  of  Catholic  worship  in  the  last  century, 
was  placed  some  distance  in  off  the  street,  and  thus  hidden  away 
from  public  view,  in  order  to  avoid  offence  to  the  authorities, 
and  to  certain  influential  private  persons,  still  more  hostile  to 
the  Catholic  religion  than  the  authorities. 

Though  the  Pound  Street  Church  seems  to  have  been  suffi- 
ciently commodious  and  imposing  in  its  day,  it  was  no  longer 
spacious  enough  in  1845  for  the  congregation  frequenting  it,  or 
fit  for  the  more  imposing  functions  of  public  worship,  when  Dr. 
Goodman  and  his  brethren  decided  to  build  a  new  church,  and 
to  build  it  on  a  conspicuous  site,  in  the  light  of  day,  and  abutt- 
ing on  the  street.  This  site,  if  it  has  its  advantages,  is  not 
without  its  disadvantages  too,  for  the  new  temple  loses  greatly 
in  effectiveness,  from  being  jammed  in  between  the  shops,  and 
other  houses  on  either  side.  The  tower,  which  is  a  very  striking 
one,  is  built  of  the  beautiful  limestone  of  Ballysadare,  elaborately 
carved.  The  roof  is  an  open  one  of  great  beauty,  as  well  as 
strength,  while  the  altars,  the  furniture,  and  the  decorations, 
are  such  as  suit  a  first-class  church.  The  tower  terminates  in 
eight  pinnacles,  one  at  each  corner  of  the  square,  and  one  of 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  287 


lesser  proportions  on  each  of  the  four  sides;  and  some  might 
like  the  finish  better  if,  instead  of  eight,  there  were  only  four 
pinnacles,  as  usually  happens  ;  for,  looking  from  some  parts  of 
the  town,  the  present  arrangement  of  the  summit  reminds  one 
of  a  chess-board,  with  its  men,  of  unequal  size,  in  different 
positions. 

The  eastern  gable  contains  a  noble  stained-glass  window, 
erected  by  his  friends,  to  the  memory  of  the  lamented  Dr. 
Goodman,  and  bearing  the  inscription : — "  In  memoriam,  inclyti 
et  venerandi  Dei  sacerdotis,  Ad.  R.  P.  Bern.  Jos.  Dom  Goodmans 
Ord  Praedicatorum  qui  ob  praeclaras  animi  dotes  diviti  aeque  ac 
pauperi  nimis  erat  in  desiderio  clerus  atque  populus  Sligoensis 
pie  ponere  curavere  Kal.  Januarii  an.  1874." 

This  "  good  man,"  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  died  on  the 

llth  May,  1874,  and  was  buried  in  the  nave  of  Holy  Cross 

Church,  where  the  remains  of  his  old  friend  and  brother,  Father 

McEvoy,  who  went  to  his  reward  on  the  9th  July,  1876,  were 

laid,  in  due  time,   by  his    side.     Over    their   graves,  Father 

Boylan  and  his  brother,  conventuals,  in  their  affection,  have 

placed  a  beautiful  brass  tablet,  with  the  following  inscription: — 

Adm.  Rev.  P.  Fr.  B.  J.  D.  GOODMAN,  S.T.M. 

Prudentia  zelo  et  doctrina  Claro 

hujus  conventus  multoties   Priori 

Monasterium  et  Ecclesiam, 

S.  Crucis  Sligoensis, 

fratrtbus  adjuvantibus  a  fundamentis  erexit. 
Ad  gubernium  totius  Provinciae  Hibernioe, 

Anno  1864  vocatus 
multa  et  prseclara  gloriose  fecit 
et  omnia  boni  pastoris  munera 

laudabiliter  adimplevit 
Vixit  annos  64.     Obiit  die  11  Maii,  anno  1874. 

Rev.  P.  Fr.  M.  McEvoY,  O.P. 

Crenobii  S.  Crucis  Sligoensis  filio 

"  In  omnibus  exemplum  bonorum  operum 

in  doctrina  in  integritate  in  gravitate  " 

Vixit  annos  92.     Obiit  die  9  Julii,  anno  1876. 

REQUIESCANT  IN  PACE. 

It  would  hardly  be  in  keeping  with  the  role  of  a  faithful 
chronicler,  to  omit  all  reference  to  a  controversy  which  waxed 


288  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


warm,  in  the  second  decade  of  this  century,  and  developed  some 
little  heat  ever  since,  between  the  secular  and  regular  clergy 
of  Sligo,  regarding  their  respective  claims  to  the  collections, 
accustomed  to  be  made,  on  occasion  of  interments  in  the  old 
abbey.  At  the  first  time  referred  to,  Father  Patrick  Burke, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Elphin,  was  the  administrator  of  St.  John's 
parish,  or  union  of  parishes;  and  he  not  only  advocated  the 
claims  of  the  secular  clergy  to  the  offerings,  or  a  share  of  them, 
but  he  was  in  the  habit  of  standing  himself  near  the  abbey,  as 
funerals  passed  in,  and  of  demanding,  and  receiving,  offerings  ; 
while  on  the  other  hand,  a  Dominican  father  met  the  funerals 
about  the  same  place,  and  claimed  these  contributions,  as  the 
exclusive  right  of  himself  and  his  brethren  of  Holy  Cross  con- 
vent. In  the  perplexity,  occasioned  by  this  conflict  of  claims, 
the  people  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do ;  and  some  'gave 
to  one  side,  some  to  the  other,  and  many  to  both. 

The  arguments  relied  on  by  the  disputants  may  not  all  have 
come  down  to  us,  but  it  is  known  that  the  Dominicans  based 
their  claim  on  their  original  rights,  which,  they  maintained,  con- 
tinued always  in  existence,  from  the  thirteenth  century  down 
to  their  own  day,  though  the  enforcement  of  these  rights  was 
interrupted,  now  and  then,  by  the  calamity  of  the  times.  The 
contention,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the  seculars  was,  that  the 
religious  had  lost  their  rights: — first,  by  the  royal  transfer  of  the 
abbey,  with  its  possessions,  to  Sir  William  Taaffe ;  second,  by 
their  own  inaction,  and  the  consequent  consent  of  the  Church  to 
the  status  quo ;  and  third,  by  the  cemetery  becoming,  in  some 
way  not  specified,  parish  property,  after  its  transfer  from  the 
Dominicans.  We  shall  leave  it  to  others  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  these  arguments,  which,  if  this  were  the  place,  might 
be  discussed  with  advantage,  from  both  the  historical  and 
the  canonical  point  of  view. 

At  the  time  of  these  troubles  there  was  no  access  to  the 
Pope,  owing  to  the  wars  and  confusion  of  the  times ;  and  Dr. 
Burke,  on  becoming  bishop,  took  on  himself  the  establishment 
of  a  modus  vivendi,  and  decided,  that  the  seculars  should  make 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  289 


the  collections,  but  that  the  friars  should  receive  a  fourth  part 
of  all  the  proceeds,  whether  the  burial  took  place  in  the  abbey 
or  in  any  other  graveyard  of  the  parish.  Dr.  Brown,  in  turn, 
sanctioned  this  arrangement. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  mention  that,  in  the  proceedings  con- 
nected with  the  case,  affidavits  were  made  before  Mayor 
McGowan,  in  1857,  by  some  of  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  the 
town,  including  James  "Williams  and  Patrick  Boland,  from 
which  we  learn  that,  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the 
abbey  grounds  were  without  fence  of  any  kind ;  that,  later, 
a  rough  wall  ran  round  them,  with  a  gap  in  it  for  the  passage 
of  funerals ;  and  that,  later  still,  Mr.  Martin  Madden,  who  was  a 
great  friend  of  the  friars,  put  up  a  fine  entrance  gate  at  his  own 
expense. 

The  abbey  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Honourable  Evelyn 
Ashley,  who  received  it,  with  the  rest  of  the  Sligo  property  of 
the  Temples,  from  Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Mount  Temple. 
Lord  Palmerston  showed  great  interest  in  the  ruin,  and 
expended  a  substantial  sum  in  strengthening  the  walls  and 
repairing  the  breaches  which  were  made  in  them  by  time,  and 
not,  as  many,  who  should  know  better,  suppose,  by  Oliver  Crom- 
well, who  never  set  foot  in  Sligo  or  any  other  county  of 
Connaught. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Abbey  will  be  soon  handed  over 
to  the  Board  of  Works  to  be  restored  and  preserved  as  a 
"  National  monument."  The  propriety  of  disposing  of  it  in  this 
way  was  talked  of  a  good  deal,  a  year  or  two  ago,  and  was  dis- 
cussed at  the  time  by  the  Board  of  Guardians,  but  the  subject 
soon  dropped,  and  has  been  allowed  to  rest  since  then. 

Everybody,  capable  of  forming  an  opinion  on  such  a  matter, 
was  in  favour  of  the  transfer,  and  many  would  have  exerted  them- 
selves to  bring  it  about,  only  they  fancied  that  there  were  two 
insuperable  obstacles  in  the  way  :  one,  the  determination  of  the 
landlord  not  to  part  with  the  ruin,  and  the  other,  the  hostility 
of  certain  townspeople  to  the  change, 

Both  these  impediments  were,  in  great  part,  imaginary — the 
VOL,  I.  T 


290  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


first  entirely  so ;  for  Mr.  Ashley,  as  one  would  expect  from 
a  gentleman  of  his  culture,  is  ready  and  willing  to  give  up  the 
place  as  soon  as  the  two  other  parties,  mainly  concerned — the 
persons  having  family  graves,  and  the  Board  of  Works — agree 
to  the  restoration.  The  opposition  of  the  townspeople  in  ques- 
tion is  no  way  formidable,  for  it  is  based  on  a  misunderstanding, 
which  would  be  easily  removed.  It  arises  from  an  impression 
that  the  restoration  involves  the  disturbance  of  human  remains 
in  existing  graves,  and  the  prevention,  in  future,  of  any  inter- 
ment whatever  in  those  graves ;  but,  if  the  people  were  made 
aware  that  there  would  be  no  disturbance  of  the  remains; 
that  the  few  persons,  who  still  bury  in  family  graves,  might, 
if  they  desired  it,  continue  to  do  so ;  that  the  only  thing  not 
allowed  would  be  the  taking  up  of  new  plots,  and,  that,  while 
the  structural  parts  of  the  convent  would  be  treated  in  a  way  to 
re-invest  them  with  much  of  their  pristine  beauty,  the  grounds, 
both  within  and  without  the  walls,  would  be  cleared  of  the  weeds, 
and  rubbish,  and  nuisance  that  now  lie  about  in  such  disgraceful 
higgledy  piggledy — with  this  knowledge,  the  owners  of  family 
graves  would,  probably,  be  among  the  first  to  cry  out  for  the 
restoration.  For  any  one  having  such  a  family  interest,  would 
naturally  desire,  even  more  than  others,  to  see  the  grounds 
become  worthy  of  their  destination,  as  the  last  resting-place  of 
his  relatives,  as  well  as  of  some  of  the  most  exalted  men  and 
women  that  Ireland  has  produced. 

To  neglect  the  abbey,  is  to  neglect  the  memory,  not  only  of 
those  buried  in  it,  but  of  the  other  distinguished  persons  who 
were  associated  with  it,  and  who  deserve  well  to  live  in  the 
remembrance  of  the  people  of  Sligo.  While  it  stood,  all  the 
men  of  note  conected  with  the  town,  worshipped  within  its  walls 
—the  Fitzgeralds,  for  the  sixty  years,  or  thereabouts,  during 
which  they  owned  the  town ;  Kichard  De  Burgo,  the  Ked 
Earl,  the  "  most  powerful  subject  of  the  Crown  in  Ireland," 
about  the  year  1310,  when  he  rebuilt,  or  repaired  the  castle; 
the  O'Connors  Sligo,  for  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
their  rule,  as  Lords  of  Sligo,  that  is,  from  the  early  years  of  the 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  291 


14th  century,  to  the  middle  of  the  17th;  and  the  Taaffes,  for 
though  Sir  William  accepted  the  royal  grant  of  the  convent  and 
its  possessions,  he  and  his  descendants  were  Catholics,  and  so 
devoted  that,  as  the  present  head  of  the  family,  Count  Taaffe, 
the  prime  minister  of  Austria  informs  us,  in  his  privately  printed 
Memoirs  of  the  Taaffe  Family,  they  renounced  their  peerage, 
and  other  signal  honours,  with  all  their  broad  acres  in  the 
counties  of  Sligo  and  Louth,  in  order  to  preserve  the  faith. 

Zeal,  similar  to  that  shown  elsewhere,  for  the  preservation  of 
local  monuments,  should  animate  the  people  of  Sligo.  While 
the  applications  from  other  parts  of  Ireland  to  the  Board  of 
Works  are  so  numerous  that  the  Board  cannot  attend  to  a  tithe 
of  them,  it  would  be  a  shame  if  Sligo  men  exhibited  apathy 
or  indifference  regarding  Holy  Cross ;  and  what  would  render 
their  conduct  more  reprehensible,  is  the  fact,  that  the  abbey  is 
the  only  structure  in  the  town,  which,  either  for  its  architectural 
qualities,  or  its  historical  associations,  has  any  claim  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  National  Monument.  Now,  that  its  twin  establish- 
ment, the  castle,  has  disappeared,  it  is  the  only  building  in 
the  town  of  an  historical  character,  no  other  structure  dating  so 
early,  even  as  the  era  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo;  whereas,  Holy 
Cross  carries  the  mind  back  to  the  origin  of  the  town,  to  the 
times  when  the  site  of  Sligo  was  a  wood,  when  its  inhabitants 
were  a  few  fishermen,  living  on  the  subsistence  which  they  took 
daily  out  of  the  river  with  osier  nets;  and  when  their  residences 
were  a  few  fragile  constructions,  formed  of  willows,  covered 
with  the  branches  of  trees,  and  set  within  the  sod  ramparts  of 
the  Green  Fort,  and  one  or  two  other  earthen-work  inclosures  of 
the  neighbourhood. 

The  advantages  accruing  to  Creevalea,  or  Ballyrourke  Abbey, 
from  the  renovation  it  underwent  in  1884,  under  the  enlightened 
direction  of  Mr.  Scott,  will  give  a  good  idea  of  the  benefit  sure  to 
result  to  Holy  Cross,  from  a  similar  process,  under  the  same 
skilful  hands.  Those  who  remember  the  condition  of  Creevalea, 
before  the  Board  of  Works  took  it  in  charge,  the  walls  decayed 
and  crumbling,  some  of  the  tombstones  out  of  place,  and  covered 


292  HISTOKY   OF  SLIGO. 


with  accumulated  rubbish,  bits  of  coffins  scattered  about,  bones 
of  the  dead  sticking  up  here  and  there  out  of  the  earth,  and 
skulls  piled  into  heaps  in  the  corners ;  and  consider  the  state 
in  which  the  restorers  left  it  at  the  close  of  their  labours — the 
walls  secured  and  cleansed,  the  tombstones  replaced  in  their 
respective  positions,  the  skulls  and  bones  re-interred,  a  cloister 
arcade,  which  was  not  even  known  to  have  existed,  re- erected, 
and  the  whole  place  ordered  with  a  neatness,  that  reminds  one  of 
a  continental  graveyard, — will  be  able  to  appreciate  the  value 
of  a  Board  of  Works  restoration. 

The  discovery  of  lost  or  hidden  portions  of  buildings,  as 
in  this  case  of  the  cloister  arcade,  is  not  an  -uncommon  incident 
in  restorations.  Mr.  Scott,  with  a  sagacity,  which  resembles  an 
instinct,  will  point  out  where  missing  parts  of  the  structure  may 
be  found,  and  will  get  his  men  to  turn  up  stone  after  stone, 
which  he  puts  together,  till  he  re-constructs  a  window,  or  niche, 
or  other  appendage,  which  had  disappeared  hundreds  of  years 
ago.  In  the  same  way,  stones  are  sometimes  found  with 
inscriptions,  which  throw  light  on  historical  persons  or  things. 
A  stone  found  at  Creevalea,  with  an  inscription  regarding 
Bishop  O'Rorke,  is  a  case  in  point. 

Holy  Cross  may  not  be  now  in  quite  as  disordered  a  condition 
as  Creevalea  was,  when  taken  in  hand  by  Mr.  Scott.  Anyhow, 
it  is  no  longer  the  Golgotha  that  it  appears  to  have  been  in 
1779,  when  the  artists  of  the  Honourable  Mr.  Conyngham 
visited  it,  and  found  a  mass  of  skulls  "  sufficient  to  load  a  small 
vessel,"  heaped  up  over  its  high  altar.  Still,  those  who  have 
been  through  it  of  late,  had  evidence  enough  before  them,  that 
the  place,  as  well  the  ruin,  as  the  grounds,  is  sadly  in  need  of 
re-arrangement  and  renovation.  As  things  stand,  it  is  not  only 
greatly  behind  the  cemeteries  of  our  cities  and  chief  towns,  but 
would  suffer,  by  comparison,  with  some  of  our  country  church- 
yards. Owing  to  the  strong  language  in  which  foreigners,  after 
visiting  Ireland,  animadvert  on  the  shameful  neglect  of  our 
Lurying  places,  there  set  in,  some  years  ago,  a  change  for  the 
better,  which  has  removed  many  of  the  blots  and  evils  com- 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  203 


plained  of,  but  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  Sligo  is  still  too  open  to 
reproach  in  the  matter.  Better,  however,  late  than  never;  and 
there  could  hardly  be  a  more  appropriate  time  for  an  effort 
than  the  present,  for  it  is  particularly  congruous,  that  the 
habitations  of  the  dead  should  be  looked  after,  when  the  habita- 
tions of  the  living  are  so  improved  and  embellished,  that,  the 
Sligo  of  the  present  day,  if  compared  with  the  Sligo  of  a  century 
ago  cannot  be  more  aptly  characterized,  than  by  describing  it 
as  a  transformation. 

The  interments  in  the  abbey  are  daily  becoming  fewer,  and 
are  likely  soon  to  cease  altogether,  as  Sligo  families  prefer  to  lay 
their  dead  in  the  new  cemetery.  Nor  is  this  surprising,  for  in 
all  Ireland  there  is  not  a  more  beautiful  burying  ground. 
Lying,  as  it  does,  on  the  charming  slope  of  Lough  Gill,  it  realizes, 
in  its  position,  as  well  as  in  its  other  circumstances,  the  ideal  of 
poor  Thomas  Davis's  wished-for  place  of  rest : — 

" on  an  Irish  green  hill-side 

On  an  opening  lawn — but  not  too  wide." 

The  ground  is  already  largely  occupied,  though  it  is  not  as 
yet  forty  years  opened.  It  was  on  the  23rd  November,  1848,  a 
trust  deed  of  the  place,  which,  as  part  of  the  old  commons  of 
the  town,  belonged  to  the  Corporation,  was  executed  by  that 
body  to  the  following  trustees  : — Right  Honorable  John  Wynne, 
Reverend  Edward  Day,  Rector  of  St.  John's,  Rev.  Owen  Feeny, 
Parish  Priest  of  Riverstown,  Peter  O'Connor,  Esq.,  J.P.,  Andrew 
Walker,  Esq.,  J.P.,  Robert  McBride,  Esq.,  J.P.,  the  Mayor  of 
Sligo,  Alderman  Lyons,  Alderman  Gallagher,  Alderman  Verdon, 
and  the  clergymen  of  all  denominations  resident  in  Sligo.  Since 
that  date  the  successive  mayors,  the  successive  aldermen,  and 
the  resident  clergy  of  the  town  were  members  of  the  Cemetery 
Committee  down  to  the  22nd  September,  1885,  when  the  Com- 
mittee resigned  their  position  and  transferred  their  authority  to 
the  Sligo  Corporation. 

The  Corporation  was  the  most  suitable  body,  in  which  to 
vest  its  management,  as  persons  of  different  religious  denomi- 
nations are  buried  in  it,  though  in  different  quarters.  The 


294  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


charge  for  plots  is  moderate — the  highest  being  five  guineas,  for 
a  plot  d  perpetuite  of  nine  feet  square ;  a  smaller  plot  in  the 
same  quarter  costs  much  less  ;  while  a  considerable  stretch  is 
provided,  free  of  charge,  for  the  interment  of  the  poor. 

Over  the  plots,  that  have  been  used,  monuments  are  pretty 
general,  many  of  which  are  costly  and  graceful.  There  is  a 
goodly  number  of  obelisks,  some  terminating  in  crosses  and 
some  in  poppy  heads.  There  is  a  variety  of  crosses — Greek 
crosses,  Latin  crosses,  Irish  crosses,  one  of  the  last  named,  that 
on  the  grave  of  the  late  Mr.  Gayer,  being  elaborately  and  taste- 
fully carved.  There  are  two  or  three  massive  pyramids,  which 
might,  perhaps,  be  impressive  enough,  if  elsewhere,  but  which 
seem  out  of  keeping  with  the  extent  of  the  grounds  and  the 
size  of  the  surrounding  monuments.  You  see  here  and  there 
the  cremation  urn,  either  as  an  independent  memorial  or  as 
some  subsidiary  ^part  or  member  of  a  group. 

In  general,  the  monuments  afford  evidence,  not  only  of  family 
affection,  but  of  good  taste  and  Christian  feeling.  The  spacious 
plot  of  the  lay  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominick; 
where  they  are  all  interred — the  brothers  in  one  aisle,  and  the 
sisters  in  the  other — suggests  their  mutual  charity,  and  that  they, 
like  Saul  and  Jonathan,  united  in  life,  even  in  death  would  not 
be  separated.  A  small  chapel  of  elegant  design  and  highly 
artistic  finish,  erected  over  the  remains  of  Miss  O'Connor,  is, 
from  the  standpoint,  both  of  religion  and  art,  a  most  effective 
memorial.  The  well-executed  marble  figure,  which  stands  over 
the  tomb  of  Mrs.  Colleary,  and  which  represents  a  weeping 
female  looking  down  disconsolately  on  the  grave,  and  in  her 
agony  clasping  to  the  heart  the  cross,  on  which  she  leans  for 
support,  is  very  striking  and  suggestive.  And  the  exquisite 
little  Latin  cross,  in  snow  white  marble,  with  its  simple  inscrip- 
tion, "In  loving  memory  of  Stella  Wynne,"  is,  perhaps,  as 
appropriate  and  touching  a  memento  of  departed  worth  as  the 
cemetery  contains. 

The  run  on  monuments  for  this  and  other  burying  places  of 
the  county  must  increase  employment,  and  diffuse  a  taste  for  art 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  295 


in  the  neighbourhood.  But  for  this  it  will  be  necessary  to  give, 
as  far  as  possible,  a  preference  to  local  tradesmen  and  local 
material ;  and  it  is  well  to  know,  that  in  doing  so,  people  giving 
orders  would  consult  their  own  interests,  for,  however  bright, 
marble,  granite,  or  the  different  species  of  Scotch  stone,  may 
appear  for  a  short  time  after  being  worked,  they  will  soon  lose 
colour  and  moulder  away  in  the  open  air  of  our  climate,  while 
the  limestone  of  Ballysadare  or  ^Cairns-hill  would  daily  grow 
harder,  and,  with  some  care,  look  better.  Let  anyone  who  may 
have  a  doubt  about  the  correctness  of  this  assertion,  visit  the 
cloister  of  Holy  Cross  Abbey,  where  he  will  find  the  limestone 
of  the  columns  nothing  the  worse  for  its  four  or  five  centuries' 
exposure  to  the  injuries  of  the  atmosphere. 

The  letters  of  the  epitaphs  in  this  and  the  other  burying  places 
of  the  county  are  incised.  liaised  characters  were  used  occa- 
sionally in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
specimens  of  which  may  be  seen  in  Ballysadare  and  Killoran 
graveyards,  but,  as  the  century  advanced,  they  were  given 
up,  owing,  probably,  to  their  expensiveness.  The  raised  lettering, 
if  more  costly,  is  far  more  enduring  than  the  other. 

Epitaphs  in  verse  are  not  so  common  in  Ireland  as  they  are 
in  England  and  other  countries,  and  very  few  of  them  are  to 
be  met  with  in  the  county  Sligo.  In  Ballysadare  graveyard, 
over  the  grave  of  a  sailor  named  Benson,  we  read  : — 

Laborious  blast  on  Neptune's  waves  has  tossed  me  to  and  fro, 
But  spite  of  all,  by  God's  decree,  I  harbour  here  below ; 
And  now  at  anchor  here  I  lie  with  many  of  our  fleet, 
I  hope  to  sail  some  day  again  our  Saviour  Christ  to  meet. 

In  the  same  place  the  inscription  on  the  tomb  of  Father 
Walter  Henery  runs  thus  : — 

If  generous  merit,  without  pride  or  state, 
Or  Heaven-born  virtue  could  avert  man's  fate, 
If  a  God-like  mind  inclined  to  aid  and  give, 
Could  furnish  means  to  conquer  death  and  live, 
The  worthy  pastor  that  entombed  lies  here, 
Would  always  live  to  give,  instruct,  and  cheer 
The  helpless  poor,  illume  the  church,  and  be 
God's  faithful  servant,  Walter  Henery. 


296  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


We  are  indebted  to  the  muse  of  our  local  bard,  Father  Casey, 
for  this  acrostic,  on  the  monument  of  the  Milmo  family : — 

M  ay  Heaven  rest  the  souls  of  those 

I  n  peaceful  bliss  who  here  repose  ; 

L  et  angels  come  their  souls  to  meet ; 

M  ay  Heaven's  Queen  with  welcome  greet ; 

O  n  them  may  Jesus,  God  of  love, 

S  ereuely  smile  in  realms  above. 

T  hey  fought  the  fight,  they  gained  the  prize 
O  n  which  on  earth  they  kept  their  eyes ; 
M  ay  we,  like  them,  when  life  is  o'er  . 
B  e  crowned  with  bliss  for  evermore. 

And  the  following  epitaph  on  the  monument  of  his  parents, 
in  the  churchyard  of  Tawnagh,  is  by  the  same  talented  writer  *  : — 

Accept,  fond  parents,  throned  above 

Life's  stormy  ocean  wild ; 
This  monument  of  filial  love 

From  your  devoted  child. 

You  taught  me  young  to  worship  God, 

And  every  sin  to  dread  ; 
Along  the  path  the  saints  have  trod 

Your  children  young  you  led. 

Faith,  hope,  love,  and  gifts  beyond 

All  else  between  the  poles  ; 
I  owe  them  to  your  teaching  fond, 

May  heaven  rest  your  souls. 

The  following,  in  Collooney  churchyard,  savours  somewhat  of 
the  sectarian  feeling  very  prevalent  formerly  in  that  neighbour- 
hood : — 

Here  lies  the  body  of  Thomas  Stuart  and  his  wife  Jane, 

A  soldier  in  Flanders  in  all  Queen  Anne's  reign, 

He  fought  there  with  Marlborough  in  many  a  campaign, 

Religion  was  the  cause  he  strove  to  maintain. 

*  This  able  and  hard-working  missionary  priest  has  given  to  the  public 
various  poems— didactic,  lyrical,  etc.,  and  has  been  most  successful  in  all. 
While  his  verses,  as  to  artistic  form  and  finish,  have  received  the  high  com- 
mendation of  critics  of  plenary  authority,  like  Cardinal  Newman,  they  are 
regarded,  in  their  moral  aspect,  by  the  bishops  and  priests  of  Ireland,  as  one  of 
the  most  potent  forces  at  work  in  resisting  and  abating  the  evils  of  intemperance. 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  297 


This  quaint  production  may  be  seen  in  Templeboy  grave- 
yard : — 

Here  lie  Tom  and  his  wife  Mary, 
His  Surname  Burns,  her's  was  Fary  ; 
She  modest  was  and  to  strangers  good, 
He — Greek  and  Latin  understood. 
As  they  shared  freely  what  was  given 
Pray  that  their  souls  may  rest  in  heaven. 

The  effusion,  that  follows,  is  inscribed  on  the  tomb  of  the 
the  Knott  family,  in  the  burying  place  of  Emlaghfad  : — 

Beneath  tlie  horrors  of  this  tomb 

In  promiscuous  ruins  lye 
The  noblest  charms  that  virtue  gave 

With  all  that  nature  could  supply. 

Miss  Mary  Knott,  late  of  Battlefield,  departed  this  life 
On  the  25th  day  of  September,  1777— aged  23  years. 

Ah  !  why  dread  tyrant  was  it  given 
To  thee  to  sink  (so  young)  such  worth  in  dust  ? 

Why,  'twas  my  great  command  from  heaven 
To  crop  the  fairest  flower  first. 

There  are  a  few  other  inscriptions  in  verse,  up  and  down  the 
county,  which  are  omitted  here  with  regret  for  want  of  room. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  CHURCH   OF  ST.    JOHN, 

THE  church  of  St.  John  came  much  later  than  the  neighbouring 
churches  of  Killaspugbrone  and  Kilmacowen  ;  and,  as  far  as  the 
writer  knows,  there  is  no  record,  either  in  print  or  manuscript, 
to  fix  the  time  of  the  foundation.  It  is  not  mentioned  in  the 


ST.  JOHN'S  CHURCH  IN  1776.* 

Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  ;  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  so  full  on 
the  history  of  this  part  of  Ireland ;  the  Annals  of  Boyle,  com- 
piled in  the  neighbourhood  ;  the  Annals  of  Clyn  and  Bowling  ; 

*  This  illustration  was  drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr.  Wakeman,  from  a  sketch 
made  in  1776,  which  was  kindly  lent  the  writer  by  the  Honourable  Evelyn 
Ashley. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  299 


or  any  of  the  other  annals  or  histories  to  which  Irish  writers 
turn  for  information  regarding  the  past  of  the  country. 

Nor  will  the  style  of  the  building  throw  much  light  on  the 
subject,  for,  with  its  jumble  of  semi-circular,  pointed,  and 
horizontal  lines,  it  is  a  mixture  of  several  styles,  so  that  the 
work  cannot  be  referred  to  any  one  definite  period.  And,  when 
we  recollect,  that  within  the  present  century,  the  building  has 
undergone  substantial  alterations,  £3,500  having  been  expended 
on  it  in  1822,  and  about  £1,000,  a  year  or  two  ago,  we  may 
safely  infer  that,  by  the  operations,  which  took  place  on  these 
occasions,  the  original  features  of  the  church  have  been  entirely 
altered,  and  that  comparatively  little  of  what  now  meets  the 
eye  formed  part  of  the  primitive  structure.  No  one  would 
recognise  in  the  church  of  to-day,  the  church  of  a  hundred 
years  back. 

If  the  opinion,  already  expressed,  that  Maurice  Fitzgerald 
was  the  true  founder  of  Sligo,  be,  as  it  must  be,  admitted,  it 
will  follow  that  St.  John's  Church  was  not  built  before  his  day. 
And,  in  any  case,  an  earlier  date  cannot  be  assigned,  as  Fitz- 
gerald was,  at  all  events,  the  first  Anglo-Norman  that  acquired 
footing  in  Sligo,  and,  as  the  church  is  certainly  a  work  of  the 
Anglo-Normans,  and  not  of  the  Celts.  The  invaders  always 
showed  a  special  devotion  towards  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and 
gave  his  name  to  their  religious  foundations.  Strongbow  founded 
the  priory  of  Kilmainham  in  his  honour ;  John  de  Courcy 
dedicated  to  him  the  church  of  Down  ;  Walter  de  Eidelsford 
that  of  Castledermot ;  Walter  de  Lacy  that  of  Kells ;  William 
Marshall,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  the  Priory  of  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
at  Kilkenny;  Maurice  Fitzgerald  himself  founded  the  Preceptory 
of  St.  John  the  ^Baptist,  at  Kilteel,  in  county  Kildare ;  and 
others  manifested  their  devotion  to  this  saint  in  the  same  way, 
in  Dublin,  in  Cork,  in  Limerick,  in  Louth,  in  Roscommon,  in 
Tuam,  and  in  other  places. 

The  Anglo-Normans  being  supreme  in  Sligo  during  the  pro- 
gress of  this  movement,  would  naturally  exhibit  their  attach- 
ment to  the  Baptist  at  Sligo,  in  the  same  way  as  their  fellow 


300  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


countrymen  were  doing  elsewhere — though,  no  Celt  of  the  time 
would  dedicate  a  church  to  this  favourite  saint  of  the  Foreigners. 
If,  then,  we  suppose  St.  John's  Church  to  be  the  work  of  the 
first  invaders — though  it  is  not  easy  to  reconcile  the  character 
of  the  building  with  so  early  an  origin — it  must  have  been 
founded  between  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  and  the 
year  1315,  as  the  Fitzgeralds  first,  and  the  De  Burgos  after, 
were  masters  of  Sligo  all  this  interval;  but  in  1315,  owing  to 
Bruce's  invasion,  the  English  lost  authority  in  the  place,  and 
did  not  recover  it  till  late  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  so  that  St. 
John's  could  not  be  erected  in.  the  intervening  centuries,  the 
O'Connors  being  then  Lords  of  this  place. 

There"  is  mention  in  official  documents  of  a  rectory,  called  the 
Rectory  of  Sligo,  between  the  two  bridges,  to  which,  there  is 
reason  to  think,  the  church  of  St.  John  belonged.  The  exact 
extent  of  this  rectory  is  no  where  stated,  but,  as  it  is  contra- 
distinguished from  the  rectory  and  vicarage  of  Killaspugbrone, 
from  the  rectory  and  vicarage  of  Kilmacowen,  and  from  the 
rectory  and  vicarage  of  Calry,  it  would  appear  to  coincide  with 
what  is  now  called,  the  Parish  of  St.  John,  and  to  have  extended 
from  the  bridge  of  Belladrehid,  to  the  bridge  of  Sligo,  these 
bridges  being  the  two  bridges  in  question.  It  appears  from  an 
Exchequer  Inquisition,  taken  at  Dublin,  in  the  38th  year  of 
Elizabeth,  to  inquire  into  the  possessions  of  the  Priory  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  without  the  Newgate,  Dublin,  and  from  an 
Exchequer  Inquisition,  held  in  Bally  mote,  on  the  12th  January, 
1593,  before  Richard  Boyle,  that  the  Rectory  of  Sligo,  between 
the  two  bridges,  was  appropriate  to  this  establishment ;  a  good 
reason  why  the  church,  built  in  the  rectory,  should  be  called 
the  Church  of  St.  John.  No  doubt,  it  was  while  the  Fitz- 
geralds, or  the  Red  Earl,  ruled  in  Sligo,  that  the  Dublin  priory 
received  this  endowment. 

At  the  dissolution,  this  rectory  was  granted  to  Robert 
Harrison,  from  whom  it  passed  by  purchase,  to  John  Crofton, 
who  possessed  it  in  1612,  "  with  a  half  quarter  of  land,  called 
Knappagh,  and  a  half  quarter  called  Tully."  From  Crofton  it 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  301 


came  into  the  hands  of  Sir  Eoger  Jones,  who  was  constantly 
adding  to  his  possessions  by  purchase  or  mortgage. 

Aware  that  Sir  Roger  Jones  was  the  leading  Anglo-Norman 
of  Sligo  in  his  day,  the  writer  laid  aside  the  pen  at  this  point  of 
the  narrative,  to  try  to  find  out,  before  proceeding  further,  the 
facts  of  Sir  Roger's  career.  And  the  study  was  not  without 
result,  not  merely  as  regards  the  Knight's  biography,  but,  what 
will  be  more  interesting  to  many,  as  regards  the  history  of  St. 
John's  Church,  about  which  nobody  seemed  to  know  anything 
definite,  though  it  was  taken  as  a  settled  matter,  that  it  was 
a  pre-Beformation  structure ;  a  conclusion  in  which  the  writer 
concurred,  though  with  misgiving,  and  rather  against  his  better 
judgment. 

Notwithstanding,  however,  this  general  conviction,  it  would 
now  appear  to  follow,  from  Sir  Roger's  will,  that  St.  John's 
Church  is  a  work  of  his,  and,  consequently,  a  building  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  words  of  the  will  which  seem  to 
warrant  this  conclusion,  are  as  follows : — "  My  body  I  committ 
to  the  earth,  in  my  tombe  in  the  chappel  I  lately  erected  in  the 
parish  of  St.  John's,  in  Sligo,"  which  words,  taken  in  their 
obvious  sense,  imply  that  he  was  the  founder.  This  would  be 
quite  certain,  only  that  the  word  "  chappel,"  which  signifies 
generally  a  small  church,  and  frequently  a  parochial  church, 
signifies,  sometimes,  a  mortuary  chapel  in  a  church,  or  adjoining 
a  church,  such  as  honourable  persons,  not  unfrequently,  erect  for 
their  burying-place.  But,  if  Sir  Roger  Jones  meant  a  chapel 
in  this  sense,  he  would  not  say,  "  which  I  erected  in  St.  John's 
parish,"  but,  which  I  erected  in  St.  John's  Church,  or  adjoining 
St.  John's  Church,  as  the  case  might  be.  And  another  disposition 
of  the  will  confirms  the  meaning  now  attached  to  his  words,  for  he 
bequeaths  to  his  wife  "  the  parsonage  of  St.  John's,"  the  parson- 
age being,  in  those  days,  the  advowson  acquired  by  the  founda- 
tion of  the  church,  and  not,  as  the  word  now  popularly  signifies, 
the  residence  of  the  parson. 

Lest  it  should  be  supposed,  that  the  erection  of  the  church 


302  HISTORY    OF   SLTGO. 


•was  too  weighty  a  work  for  one  man,  it  should  be  stated,  that 
Sir  Roger  was  quite  equal  to  the  undertaking,  being,  probably, 
the  richest  man  in  the  county  in  his  day.  His  social  standing 
was  of  the  highest,  for  he  was  appointed  Governor  of  Sligo 
Castle,  in  1606,  in  succession  to  Sir  James  Fullerton,  and  from 
that  time,  till  his  death,  in  1637,  he  was  daily  acquiring  lands 
in  all  the  baronies  of  the  county,  and  advancing  money  on 
mortgages,  as  freely  as  if  he  had  a  modern  joint-stock  bank  to 
his  back. 

There  is  reason  to  believe,  that  he  was  engaged  in  trade,  too  ; 
for  among  the  bequests  left  to  his  second  wife,  was  one  which  he 
describes,  as  "  the  house  or  tenement,  called  the  shop."  The 
mansion-house,  which  he  built  for  himself,  was  a  most  sumptuous 
edifice,  being  the  so-called  castle  in  which  Lady  Jones  lived 
after  his  death,  and  which,  on  her  decease,  came  to  be  occupied 
by  Percy  Gethins,  whom,  the  writers  of  the  Ordnance  Survey 
Letters,  and  others,  credit  erroneously  with  its  erection.  At  his 
death  he  left  several  large  bequests,  and,  among  them,  one 
towards  the  erection  of  a  bridge  over  the  Moy,  at  Banada,  so 
that  St.  John's  church  would  be  a  work  well  within  his  means, 
and  just  in  keeping  with  his  tastes  and  public  spirit.  In  no 
way,  indeed,  could  the  outlay  on  this  structure,  considering  its 
moderate  size,  its  rubble  masonry,  its  spireless  tower,  its  single 
lights,  and  its  plain  roof,  be  regarded  as  formidable,  for  the 
first  citizen  of  Sligo  in  his  day  ;  the  whole  cost,  being,  probably, 
a  good  deal  less  than  the  sum,  which  the  leading  citizen  of  Sligo, 
in  our  own  day,  Mr.  Peter  O'Connor,  contributed,  and  only  as 
one  of  his  many  benefactions,  to  the  erection  of  the  Cathedral. 

At  present  the  portions  of  (Sir  Roger's  memorial,  which 
remain,  stand  outside  the  walls  of  the  church,  in  the  angle 
between  the  south  sidewall  of  the  nave,  and  the  south  sidewall 
of  the  chancel;  but  this  does  not  prove  that  it  was  originally  so; 
for  if,  as  is  most  likely,  the  sidewalls  of  the  nave,  at  first  extended 
further  towards  the  east,  they  would  include  the  Knight's  monu- 
ment, which,  it  is  plain  from  the  illustration,  was  a  mural  one, 


HISTORY    OF  SLIGO. 


303 


like  that  of  Sir  Donogh  O'Connor  in  the  abbey.*  The  chancel 
is  plainly  a  modification  of  the  original  structure,  and  it  was,  no 
doubt,  when  the  alteration  was  making,  that  this  memento  of 
Sir  Koger  was  left  out  in  the  cold,  a  fate  which  it  would  probably 
have  escaped,  were  his  claims  to  the  place  better  known. 


SIR  ROGER  JONES'   MONUMENT.* 

It  is  certain  that  the  east  end  of  the  building  has  been 
changed  more  than  once.  In  1884?  the  workmen  engaged  in 
the  alterations,  then  in  progress,  came  upon  a  semicircular 

*Mr.  John  Clarence,  of  Ballysadare,  has  made  for  the  writer,  a  careful  and  very 
accurate  drawing,  in  fac-simile,  of  the  Knight's  monument,  or,  rather,  of  as 
much  of  it  as  survives  the  rough  handling  it  met  with,  at  the  restoration  of 
the  church.  The  illustration  was  copied  on  the  wood,  by  Mr.  Wakeman,  from 
this  drawing,  and  was  engraved  by  Mrs.  Millard. 


304  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


foundation,  which  must  have  supported  a  wall  of  similar  form  at 
some  time,  and  thus  given  to  the  eastern  portion  of  the  church 
an  apse-like  termination.  It  is  right  to  add,  that  within  the 
semicircle  were  found  human  bones  which,  it  would  now  appear, 
were  those  of  Sir  Roger  Jones  and  his  wife,  and  which  the  Rector 
took  care  to  have  decently  reinterred.  At  the  time  of  their 
discovery  they  were  believed  by  the  workmen,  who  found  them, 
to  be  the  remains  of  priests  or  bishops  who  lived  in  pre-Refor- 
mation  times. 

No  doubt  there  had  been  churches  in  the  district  Between  the 
Two  Bridges  before  Sir  Roger  Jones  built  the  chapel  of  which  he 
speaks  in  his  will.  Maurice  Fitzgerald  himself  would  be  likely  to 
build  one  as  a  parish  church  for  seculars,  at  the  time  he  erected 
Holy  Cross  Convent  for  the  Dominicans,  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  Sligo.  If  such  a  fabric  was  not  built  by  Maurice  Fitzgerald,  it 
may  have  been  built  by  his  son,  or,  still  more  probably,  by  the 
Red  Earl  De  Burgo,  who  repaired  or  re-edified  the  castle  of  Sligo. 
At  all  events,  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  first  church 
of  the  Rectory  Between  the  Two  Bridges,  dates  from  the  period 
when  the  English  still  retained  rule  in  Sligo  ;  for  it  is  certain 
that  the  O'Connors,  who  came  in  as  the  English  went  out, 
would  never  consent  that  a  church  of  their  territory  should  be 
bestowed,  as  an  endowment,  on  an  English  establishment  like 
the  Priory  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  without  the  New  Gate,  to 
which  the  Rectory  Between  the  Two  Bridges  was  appropriate. 
The  parish  church  once  erected,  a  succession  of  fabrics  would  be 
kept  up,  either  by  new  erections  or  by  repairs ;  and,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  we  read  in  the  Royal  Visitation  Book,  of  1615,  that  the 
then  existing  church  of  the  place,  like  so  many  other  churches 
of  the  county,  was  recently  "  repaired." 

In  building  the  new  church  or  chapel,  Sir  Roger  Jones  showed 
more  zeal  for  the  State  religion  than  its  ministers  felt  or  exhibited 
in  those  days.  That  form  of  religion  was  at  a  very  low  ebb  in 
Ireland  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  seventeenth.  It  would  serve  no  good  purpose 
to  repeat  here  the  strong  language  of  condemnation,  and,  indeed, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  305 


of  contempt,  in  which  high  English  officials  speak  of  the 
ministers  of  the  new  religion  who  were  then  in  Ireland.  It 
will  be  enough,  at  present,  to  say  a  word  or  two  regarding  some 
of  those  who  were  connected  with  the  county  Sligo. 

By  the  admission  of  all,  Protestants  and  Catholics,  friends  and 
foes  alike,  there  lived  not  in  those  times  a  more  unprincipled  man 
than  Milerus  or  Miler  McGrath,  Elizabeth  and  James's  arch- 
bishop of  Cashel ;  and  it  was  he  who  had  now  the  ecclesiastical 
administration  of  most  of  the  county,  having  received,  on  the 
17th  September,  1606,  a  grant,  in  commendam,  of  Achonry  and 
Killalla,  with  sundry  rectories  and  prebends  in  these  dioceses,  as 
well  as  in  the  diocese  of  Elphio,  including  the  Hectory  of  which 
we  are  now  treating.  The  grant  is  thus  entered  on  the  Patent 
Roll  of  James  I.,  page  106  : — "  Grant  to  Miller  or  (Miler,)  Arch- 
bishop of  Cashel,  of  the  custody  of  the  bishoprics  of  Killallagh  and 
Aghaconry,  and  of  their  temporalities  and  spiritualities — also, 
Castleconnor  and  Skreen  rectories  in  Killallagh  diocese,  and 
Kilmacallan  vicarage  in  Elphin  Diocese,  the  prebend  of  Doug- 
horne  in  Aghaconry  diocese,  Inter  Duos  Ponies  rectory,  that  is, 
the  rectory  of  St.  John's,  Sligo,  in  Elphin  diocese,  and  the  pre- 
bend and  rectory  of  Killoshin  (Killoran)  in  Aghaconry,  diocese, 
to  the  use  of  the  said  archbishop,  without  accompt  or  payment 
of  first  fruits  or  twentieth  parts,  to  hold  the  same  for  life  in 
union  with  the  archbishoprick  of  Cashel  in  like  manner  as  the 
bishopricks  of  Lismore  and  Waterford  are  granted  by  other  letters 
patent  of  Queen  Elizabeth." 

Once  in  authority  over  Killalla  and  Achonry,  Miler  swallowed 
up,  by  himself  or  his  creatures,  all  the  good  things  which  the 
united  dioceses  contained.  All  through  his  simoniacal  career, 
he  never  tired  asking  for  preferments  from  Elizabeth  and 
James ;  and  so  fascinated  were  these  monarchs  by  him  that  they 
never  refused  him  anything,  being  apparently  as  eager  to  give  as 
he  was  to  receive.  It  was  only  after  his  death  that  James 
seemed  to  discover  his  real  character — a  discovery  which  would 
never  have  been  made,  or,  at  all  events,  would  never  have  been 
published,  only  that  it  became  bruited  abroad  that  the  accom- 
VOL  i.  u 


306  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


plished  tergiversator,  like  Talleyrand  in  modern  times,  *  died,  at 
last,  a  Catholic ;  a  report  that  derives  no  little  probability  from 
this  mysterious  epitaph,  composed  by  himself,  and  conceived  in 
the  very  spirit  of  the  ambiguous  oracle  of  Delphi : — 

MILERI  MAGRATH, 

Archiepiscopi  Casheliensis  ad  viatorem  Carmen. 
Venerat  in  Dunum  primo  sanctissimus  olim, 
Patricius,  nostri  gloria  magna  soli. 
Huic  ego  succedens,  utinam  tarn  sanctus  ut  ille, 
Sic  Duni  primo  tempore  proesul  eram. 
Anglia,  lustra  decem  sed  post  tua  sceptra  colebam, 
Principibus  placui,  marte  tonante,  tuis. 
Hie  ubi  sum  positus,  non  sum,  sum  ubi  non  sum  ; 
Sum  nee  in  ambobus,  sum  sed  utroque  loco. 

Dominus  est  qui  me  judicat 

Qui  stat  timeat  ne  cadat. 


TRANSLATION. 

Patrick  the  glory  of  our  isle  and  gown, 

First  sat  a  bishop  in  the  see  of  Down. 

I  wish  that  I  succeeding  him  in  place, 

As  bishop,  had  an  equal  share  of  grace. 

I  served  thee,  England,  fifty  years  in  jars, 

And  pleased  thy  Princes  in  the  midst  of  wars  ; 

Here,  where  I'm  placed,  I'm  not ;  and  thus  the  case  is, 

I'm  not  in  both,  yet  am  in  both  the  places. 

Magrath's  great  object  through  life  was  to  amass  wealth, 
employing  fair  means  if  they  were  the  most  likely  to  succeed, 
but,  if  not,  recurring,  with  equal  facility,  and  without  scruple,  to 
the  "  unde  unde  "  of  Horace.  As  is  not  surprising  in  the  case 
of  one  who  was  so  great  a  favourite  with  the  monarchs  of  the 
day,  and  other  people  in  high  places,  he  was  able  to  make  the 
law  serve  his  purposes  often,  and,  in  consequence,  was  generally 
engaged  in  litigation.  In  this  way  he  came  in  conflict  with  the 
O'Haras  of  Templehouse,  in  regard  to  the  Templehouse  estate  ; 
with  the  O'Haras  of  Coolany,  in  regard  to  the  possessions  of  Bally- 
sadare  Abbey;  and  with  Mr.  Perse,  who  had  purchased,  with  other 
property,  the  rectories  of  some  Tireragh  churches,  in  regard  to 

*  The  day  after  Talleyrand's  death  the  Paris  Charivari  came  out  with  the 
announcement :— "  Prince  Talleyrand  is  dead.  During  life  he  deceived  men ; 
at  his  death  he  deceived  the  devil." 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  307 


the  rectories  of  Skreen  and  Castleconor.  The  royal  visitors  of 
1615  summoned  Mr.  Perse  before  them,  and,  having  examined 
him,  left  this  minute  on  record: — "We  sent  for  Mr.  Henry 
Piers,  and  desired  to  he  satisfied  from  him  what  title  he  had  or 
pretended  to  the  two  rectories  of  Skreen  and  Castleconor,  which 
have  ever  been  reputed  to  be  rectories  institutive,  wherein  an 
incumbent  hath  lived.  He  came  before  me,  the  Chancellor, 
and  answered  me  in  this  manner  that  those  two  parsonages 
were  found  by  office  to  be  impropriate,  and  he  purchased  them  ; 
but  yet,  soon  after  the  preferment  of  this  archbishop  to  Killalla 
and  Athconry,  he  was  forced  to  give  unto  the  archbishop,  to 
stop  his  mouth,  one  hundred  pounds." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  King  James,  on  becoming  acquainted 
with  a  long  series  of  doings  of  this  kind,  should  get  incensed 
with  his  quondam  favourite.  Miler,  however, being  now  beyond 
his  reach,  having  passed  before  a  higher  tribunal  to  account  for 
his  stewardship,  the  king  desired  to  exact  retribution  from  the 
sons  of  the  archbishop ;  and,  with  this  object,  he  addressed  a 
royal  letter  to  the  Lord  Deputy  (Patent  Boll — 22  James  L,)  in 
which,  after  referring  to  "the  late  Milerus'  robberies,"  his 
"dilapidations,"  and  " ruinations "  of  church  property  of  all 
kinds,  he  directed  the  Deputy  to  take  order  that  the  sons,  "  who 
had  grown  great  by  these  robberies,"  should  be  compelled  to 
make  restitution. 

Like  master  like  man;  and  those  who  served  under  Miler 
Magrath  always  showed  themselves  worthy  of  such  a  patron. 
Take  one  or  two  instances  :  William  Flanagan,  who  was  his 
dean,  had  twenty-five  livings  in  Killalla  and  Achonry,  in  a  few 
of  which  he  served  a  couple  of  times  in  the  year,  in  some  not  at 
all,  while  in  others  he  never  set  a  foot  in  his  life. 

Dermot  Ultagh,  "  one  of  the  creatures  and  tools  of  Archbishop 
Miler  Magrath  "  (Cotton's  Fasti — The  Province  of  Connaught 
—p.  107),  and  who,  as  a  tool,  was  all  the  more  suitable  for 
having  been  deprived  of  the  office  of  Treasurer  of  Casbel,  by 
the  Royal  Visitors,  was  his  Archdeacon,  and  held,  besides  the 
lands  of  Kilturra,  which  formed  the  corps  of  the  archdeaconry, 


308  HISTOKY  OF   SLIGO. 


at  least  two  other  livings,  though  it  is  recorded  by  the  Royal 
visitors,  that  he  could  not  read  English,  Irish,  or  Latin  !  And, 
Andrew  Magrath,  a  relative,  apparently  a  son  of  the  Arch- 
bishop, had  eleven  or  twelve  livings  in  Achonry, — Kilvarnet, 
Killoran,  Kilmacteige,  Killasser,  Attymas,  [Strade,  Killedan, 
Kilconduff,  Kilbeagh,  Mocholo  (Bohola),  Kilcoleman,  and 
Templemurry — as  well  as  livings  in  other  places,  including  one 
in  Cashel.  James  Magratb,  a  son  of  Miler,"  but  a  layman,  got 
from  his  father  possession  of  the  four  quarters  of  Skreen,  the 
half  quarter  of  Dromard,  and  other  lands,  and  held  them  till 
Archibald,  Bishop  of  Killalla,  obtained,  on]  the  8th  August, 
1634,  a  decree  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer  for  their  recovery. 

The  Sligo  portion  of  Elphin,  though  that  diocese  belonged  to 
another  bishop,  was  little  better  off  than  Killalla  and  Achonry. 
Hugh  Brehoun  held  the  vicarages  of  Kilmacallan,  Coolea 
(Ballynakill),  Drumduan  (Ballysummaghan),  and  Drumcolumb ; 
Erasmus  Matthews  had  Tawnagh  and  Aghanagh ;  and  Hugo 
O'Hohy  held  the  rich  vicarage  of  DrumclifT,  and  probably  that 
of  Ahamlish ;  and  what  an  utter  sham  religious  service  or 
functions  had  become,  we  may  learn  from  the  case  of  this  Hugo 
O'Hohy,  of  whom  the  Royal  Visitors  1615  write : — "  Hugo 
O'Hohy  did  not  appear.  It  is  a  certain  fact,  that  he  is  unable 
to  read  English,  Irish,  or  Latin  ! "  Of  another  county  Sligo 
incumbent,  Nicholas  Corcan,  who  held  the  vicarages  of  Temple- 
boy,  Dromard,  and  Kilmacshalgan,  the  same  visitors  say  : — "He 
did  not  appear,  being  a  drunkard."  Thomas  Flanelly,  Yicar  of 
Kilcoman,  was  the  only  minister  in  those  times,  of  whom  the 
visitors  had  a  good  word  to  say.  They  describe  him  as  "  a  man 
of  good  character,  upright,  a  convert  in  religion ;  he  understands 
and  reads  the  Irish;  he  is  diligent;  he  resides;  and  all  his 
benefices  are  within  three  miles."  They  mention,  however,  one 
drawback — "  Uxor  sua  est  Papista" — his  wife  is  a  Papist.  Were 
the  truth  known,  the  aforesaid  Thomas  Flanelly  was,  most 
probably,  a  Papist  in  heart,  as  well  as  his  wife,  though  all  these 
benefices,  so  conveniently  situated,  stopped  his  mouth  for  the 
time. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  309 


Such  were  the  ministers  of  the  State  Church  in  the  county 
Sligo,  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Nobody  can 
deny,  that  they  would  be  a  disgrace  to  any  body  of  men  to 
which  they  belonged.  Hypocrites,  drunkards,  know-nothings, 
mammonists,  simoniacs,  they  were  the  curse  of  religion,  while 
pretending  to  be  its  ministers,  so  that  no  lover  of  Christianity, 
whatever  may  be  his  denomination,  can  look  back  without 
humiliation  and  pain  on  their  sacrilegious  doings. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  retorted,  that  they  were  brought  up 
Catholics,  and  that,  in  consequence,  a  large  share  of  the  reproach 
must  be  laid  to  the  account  of  the  Catholic  Church  for  their 
bringing  up.  It  is,  no  doubt,  true,  that  numbers  of  them  were 
originally  Catholics;  as  Miler  Magrath  himself,  who  was  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Down,  before  he  became  State  Archbishop  of  Cashel; 
as  Andrew  Magrath,  who  was  a  Franciscan  monk,  before  he 
became  Protestant  incumbent  of  over  a  dozen  benefices;  as 
Thomas  Flanelly,  who  was  a  Catholic,  before  he  figured  as  a 
"  co nvers us  in  religione."  This  cannot  be  gainsaid,  so  that 
Catholics  have  cause  to  exclaim  : — 

"  Pudet  et  hsec  opprobria  nobis 
Et  dici  potuisse,  et  non  potuisse  refelli." 

But  it  may  be  urged  in  extenuation,  that  the  Catholic  Church 
in  Ireland  at  that  time,  had  little  freedom  of  action ;  that,  owing 
to  persecution,  it  could  not  instruct  its  members  either  in  the 
church  or  in  the  school ;  that  its  children  had  to  grow  up,  to  a 
great  extent,  in  ignorance  of  their  duties;  and  that,  in  con- 
sequence, some  of  them  were  little  able  to  resist  the  temptations 
with  which  they  were  constantly  beset  by  the  proselytizer,  who 
offered  them  riches,  honours,  and  preferments,  in  return  for 
conformity  to  the  new  religion.  And,  if  a  few  units  succumbed, 
the  "  seven  thousand "  refused  to  bend  the  knee  to  Baal. 
Those,  too,  who  went  over,  might  be  very  well  spared,  being  of 
the  kind  and  class  to  which  Dean  Swift  refers,  in  the  facetious 
complaint,  that  the  Pope,  in  his  weeding  operations,  was  in  the 
habit  of  casting  the  weeds  out  of  his  own  garden  into  that  of 
the  Protestants. 


310  HISTOEY   OF  SLIGO. 


The  Royal  Visitors,  of  1615,  were  greatly  exercised  over  the 
rectories  and  prebends  which  they  found  in  the  possession  of 
laymen,  whom  they,  therefore,  regarded  as  usurpers  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  church.  Sir  Roger  Jones  held  the  rectory  Between 
the  Two  Bridges ;  Henry  Piers,  or  Perse,  as  the  name  is  more 
commonly  written,  possessed  the  rectories  of  Skreen,  Castle- 
conor,  Easkey,  Kilglass,  and  Dromard ;  and  Edward  Crofton  had 
in  hand  the  rectories  of  Kilvarnet  and  Killoran,  in  the  barony 
of  Leyney,  as  well  as  several  other  rectories  and  some  vicarages 
in  the  baronies  of  Corran  and  Tirerrill,  together  with  the  pre- 
bends of  Kilmorgan,  Emlaghfad,  Cloonoghill  and  Kilturrough. 
The  visitors  appealed  to  the  King  and  Government  against  those 
"  usurpations,"  but  it  would  appear,  that  they  appealed  in 
vain,  as  most  of  the  property  in  question,  notably  that  of  Edward 
Crofton,  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  descendants  of  the  so-called 
usurpers,  or  in  the  hands  of  their  assignees. 

If  the  Royal  Visitors  failed  in  their  appeal,  it  was  no  fault  of 
theirs,  for  they  set  forward,  very  strongly,  the  manifold  evils 
that  must  result  from  leaving  those  ecclesiastical  possessions  in 
the  hands  of  laymen ;  such  as  the  loss  of  his  rights  of  advowson 
by  the  bishop  ;  the  loss  of  his  first  fruits  and  twentieth  parts  by 
the  king ;  and  the  loss  of  opportunities  of  promotion  by  the 
clergy.  In  their  communication  they  call  the  attention  of  the 
government  to  a  circumstance  in  connection  with  the  usurpa- 
tions, which,  if  things  were  as  they  alleged,  would  convict  the 
powerful  men  of  whom  they  complain,  of  shameful  injustice  and 
fraud.  According  to  these  allegations,  the  grantees  of  abbeys 
took  to  themselves  far  larger  possessions  than  the  royal  grants 
included  or  covered ;  for  when  the  king  granted  an  abbey  and 
its  appurtenances,  they  found  means  to  have  their  letters  patent 
so  manipulated  and  drawn  as  to  convey  not  only  the  abbey  and 
its  temporal  possessions,  but,  against  the  intention  and  will  of 
the  king,  all  the  rectories,  vicarages,  and  churches,  which  were 
connected  in  any  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  such  abbey  : — 
"Per  istas  usurpationes,"  say  the  Visitors,  "nonsolum  episcopus 
jus  suum  deperdit,  clerus  promotionem,  sed  etiam  Rex  ipse 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  311 


primitias  et  vicesimarn  partem  in  his  rectoriis  et  vicariis  penitus 
amittit ;  et  hunc  morem  minus  juste  continuatum  observamus, 
quod  si  quis  a  regia  Maj estate  literas  obtinuerit  alicujus 
abbatiae,  monasterii,  et  prioratus,  in  temporalibus  statina  in 
literis  patentibus  omnes  et  singulas  rectorias  et  vicarias,  quse 
aliqua  ratione  vel  spectabant  vel  dependebant  ab  illis  abbatiis, 
monasteriis,  et  prioratibus  (etiam  non  parcendo  ecclesiis  institu- 
tivis  et  taxatis  contra  intentionem  principis)  inserit." 

In  conclusion  tbey  suggest  to  tbe  king  to  issue  a  royal  Com- 
mission witb  authority  to  summon  before  it  the  bishops  of  the 
dioceses  concerned,  and  the  "  powerful  usurpers  "  in  question. 
It  is  only  in  this  way,  they  aver,  an  end  can  be  put  to  a  state  of 
things  so  injurious  to  the  King,  and  so  noxious,  nay,  so  ruinous, 
to  the  church.  The  King  wrote  to  the  Lord  Deputy  on  the  sub- 
ject, but  with  little  immediate  effect.  The  "  powerful  usurpers," 
no  doubt,  proved  more  than  a  match  for  both  the  Royal  Visitors 
and  the  bishops,  and  found  means  to  defeat  their  well  meant 
and  zealous  suggestion  or  recommendation. 

The  lay  "  usurpers  "  soon  found  for  themselves  more  congenial 
work  than  giving  an  account  of  their  slippery  proceedings  before 
a  royal  Commission.  And  this  work  was  the  more  acceptable, 
as  it  enabled  them  to  forward  at  once  their  own  interest,  and 
the  interest  of  the  new  religion ;  interests,  indeed,  inseparably 
connected ;  for  if  the  religion  failed,  their  new  estates  and 
worldly  prospects  necessarily  failed  with  it.  Their  chief  aim 
being  henceforward  to  enforce  the  penal  laws  against  Catholics, 
and,  in  the  later  language  of  the  Statute  Book,  to  prevent  the 
further  growth  of  Popery,  they,  in  pursuance  of  this  object,  and 
in  concert  with  the  Government,  succeeded  in  making  the  heirs 
of  the  different  Irish  families  of  the  district  wards  of  the  reign- 
ing monarch,  and  thus  had  them  brought  up,  as  far  as  they 
could  do  it,  members  of  the  State  church. 

In  acting  thus  they  were  influenced  not  more  by  zeal  for  the 
spread  of  Protestantism,  than  by  a  thirst  for  their  own  aggran- 
disement ;  for  the  guardianship,  or  wardship,  as  it  was  called, 
of  these  young  gentlemen,  which  was  always  given  to  favourites, 


i 


312  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


became  a  source  of  great  profit  to  those  who  obtained  it,  and 
was  generally  secured  by  payment  of  a  large  fine  to  the  king, 
and,  sometimes,  of  a  yearly  rent  in  addition.  In  execution  of 
this  policy,  the  wardship  of  Sir  Charles  O'Connor  was  com- 
mitted, first,  to  Sir  Faithful  Fortescue,  and,  next,  to  Sir  Roger 
Jones ;  that  of  Brian  O'Rorke,  son  of  Sir  Teige  O'Rorke,  to 
Richard,  Earl  of  Clanrickarde,  who  was  the  ward's  uncle  (Patent 
Roll,  James  I.,  p.  71) ;  that  of  Shane  Oge  O'Hara,  son  and  heir 
of  Shane  O'Hara  of  Ballifennoge  (Balliara),  to  Sir  Roger  Jones 
(Patent  Roll,  James  I,  p.  183) ;  that  of  Thadeus  O'Hara  the 
younger,  son  of  Thadeus  O'Hara,  to  Sir  Charles  Coote,  of 
Castlecoote  in  Roscommon  (Patent  Roll,  James  I.,  p.  339) ;  that 
of  Brian  Oge  McDermott,  son  and  heir  of  Brian  McDermott  of 
Carrickmacdermott,  to  Talbot  Dillon  (Ibidem,  p.  55,)  and  of 
Owen  McDermott,  son  and  heir  of  Cornelius  McDermott,  late 
of  Carrickmacdermott,  to  Sir  William  Taaffe,  Knight  (Ibidem, 
p.  311) ;  of  Farall  O'Gara,  grandson  and  next  heir  of  Iriell 
O'Gara,  late  of  Moygara,  in  Sligo  county,  gentleman,  deceased, 
to  Sir  Theobald  Dillon,  Knight  (Ibidem,  p.  311)  ;  of  Owen 
McSwine  (McSweeny),  son  and  heir  of  Erevan  McSwyne,  of 
Longford,  in  Sligo  county,  gentleman,  to  William  Crofton  of 
Dublin  city,  Esquire  (Ibidem,  p.  435) ;  of  David  O'Dowde,  son 
and  heir  of  David  O'Dowde,  late  of  Killinglas  (Kilglass),  Sligo 
county,  gentleman,  deceased,  to  Captain  Lionel  Geste,  or  Ghest 
— afterwards  Sir  Lionel  Guest — (Ibidem,  p.  37) ;  and  of  John, 
alias  Shane  McConnor  McDonnogh,  son  and  heir  of  Cornelius, 
alias  Connor  McDonnogh,  lately  of  Ballendowne,  in  Sligo  county, 
to  Charles  Brennan  (Ibidem,  p.  557). 

These  grants  were  made  generally,  'mutatis  mutandis,  in 
the  same  words,  so  that  the  following  formula  concerning 
O'Gara,  the  ward  of  Sir  Theobald  Dillon,  may  be  taken  as  a 
sample  of  all :  "  Grant  to  Sir  Theobald  Dillon,  Knight,  of  the 
wardship  of  Farall  O'Gara,  grandson  and  next  heir  of  Iriell 
O'Gara,  late  of  Moygara,  in  Sligo  county,  gentleman,  deceased, 
for  a  fine  of  £8  17s.  9|d.,  and  an  annual  rent  of  £11  8s.  Od., 
retaining  thereout  £9  English,  for  his  maintenance  and  educa- 


HISTORY   OF   SLTGO.  313 


tion  in  the  English  religion  and  habits,  and  in  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  from  the  12th  to  the  18th  year  of  his  age." 
With  the  wardship,  control  of  the  marriage  of  the  ward  was 
generally  granted,  which  gave  the  grantee  great  additional 
opportunities  of  influencing  the  religion  of  bis  ward,  as  also  of 
serving  his  own  worldly  interests  by  enabling  him  to  marry  his 
charge  to  some  relative,  friend,  or  favourite,  of  his  own. 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  John  O'Donovan  indulges  in  a 
sneer  against  Farrell  O'Gara,  for  his  "  Trinity  College  educa- 
tion/' as  if  O'Gara  alone  lay  open  to  the  imputation,  while  the 
fact  is,  that  all  the  heirs  of  the  Celtic  families  of  the  county 
were,  on  becoming  King's  wards,  subjected  to  the  same  con- 
dition. It  is  unfair  then  to  the  great  patron  of  the  Four 
Masters,  to  single  him  out  for  special  reproach,  while  the 
O'Connors,  O'Rorkes,  McDermots,  O'Dowds,  etc.,  who  are  all 
in  the  same  case,  pass  off  unnoticed.  If  he  is  in  fault,  so  are 
all  these,  and  if  they  are  free  from  blame,  so  also  is  Farrell 
O'Gara. 

For,  it  appears  from  the  foregoing,  that  the  heirs  of  all  the 
county  Sligo  chiefs,  without  exception — the  O'Connors  Sligo; 
the  O'Haras,  of  Leyney ;  the  O'Garas,  of  Coolavin ;  the 
McDonoghs,  of  Tirerrill  and  Corran ;  the  O'Dowds  and 
McSweenys,  of  Tireragh — were  all  gathered  into  the  net;  and 
it  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  their  fidelity  to  the  old  religion,  that, 
though  the  toils  were  so  skilfully  drawn  around  them,  and  so 
well  guarded,  they  all,  except,  apparently,  Thaddeus  O'Hara, 
the  ward  of  Sir  Charles  Coote,  managed  to  break  away  from 
their  captors,  and  to  overcome  the  all-powerful  worldly  tempta- 
tions employed  to  retain  them.  The  Joneses  and  Croftons,  and 
the  rest,  were  powerful  enough  to  keep  a  grip  of  their  ill-gotten 
rectories  and  vicarages,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  royal  visitors  to 
recover  them,  but  they  were  powerless  against  the  irresistible 
Catholic  instincts  of  the  young  Celtic  chiefs.  And  herein  is 
witness  enough,  that  these  chiefs  were  little  accountable  for 
their  royal  wardships,  and  "  Trinity  College  education."  When 
the  first  use  they  make  of  their  liberty  of  action  and  maturity 


314  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 

of  judgment,  is  to  break  through  all  their  An  ti- Catholic  sur- 
roundings, we  may  well  conclude,  that  whatever  was  amiss  with 
them,  in  the  period  of  their  minority,  was  the  outcome  of  no 
perversity  of  will,  but  of  want  of  intelligence  to  understand,  or 
want  of  liberty  to  regulate  and  control  their  actions. 

St.  John's  Catholic  parish,  being  a  mensal  parish,  there  are 
no  Parish  Priests  to  be  named.  Some  information  concerning 
a  few  of  the  Administrators  may  be  found  in  other  parts  of  the 
book. 

There  is  no  local  record  of  the  succession  of  Protestant  in- 
cumbents in  the  parish  of  St.  John's.  The  first  we  meet  with, 
is  William  Ry croft,  who  is  mentioned  in  the  Royal  Visitation 
Book,  of  1615,  as  holding  the  vicarage  of  Sligo.  Judging  by 
his  preferments,  Mr.  Rycroft  was  a  stirring  and  ambitious  man. 
On  the  22nd  October,  17  James  I,  he  was  presented,  by  the  King, 
to  the  vicarage  of  Drumcliff,  in  the  diocese  of  Elphin,  and  to 
that  of  Rossinver,  in  the  diocese  of  Kilmore ;  and  on  the  6th 
June,  in  the  20th  year  of  this  King,  he  was  presented  by  him 
to  the  prebend  of  DrumclifT,  with  a  voice  in  the  chapter,  and 
a  stall  in  the  choir.  Mr.  Rycroft  enjoyed  also  the  vicarage  of 
Calry,  and  the  prebend  of  Kilcooly.  In  the  Visitation  Book  he 
is  described  as  a  preacher — "  concionator." 

William  Newport  is  stated  in  the  Visitation  Book,  of  1633, 
to  be  Vicar  of  St.  John's,  in  Sligo,  and  of  Killaspugbrone. 
John  Wilkinson,  prebendary  of  Oran,  was  rector  of  St.  John's 
in  1666. 

Coote  Ormsby  was  presented  by  the  Crown,  in  1681,  to  the 
living  of  St.  John's,  which  was  then  a  rectory,  as  well  as  a 
vicarage.  Upon  the  death  of  Sir  Roger  Jones,  the  rectory,  no 
doubt,  lapsed  to  the  Crown.  It  was  probably  in  the  interest  of 
Mr.  Ormsby,  that  the  four  parishes  of  St.  John's  Sligo,  Calry, 
Killaspugbrone,  and  Kilmacowen,  were  united  by  act  of  Council, 
in  1681,  the  year  of  his  appointment. 

John  Fountanier,  a  Huguenot,  was  presented  by  the  Crown, 
in  1695.  This  clergyman's  name  occurs  in  the  records  of  the 
Provost's  Court,  in  the  case  of  "  Rev.  John  Fountanier,  plaintiff; 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  315 


William    Flannery,  defendant;  James    Rourk,  bound  for   his 
appearance." 

Rev.  Eubule  Ormsby  succeeded  Rev.  John  Fountanier  as 
incumbent  of  St.  John's.  The  first  time  we  hear  of  Mr. 
Ormsby,  is  172  J,  when  he  was  appointed  chaplain  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales'  own  regiment  of  horse,  on  the  recommendation  of 
Brigadier-General  Wynne,  who  applied  in  the  following  letter 
to  Secretary  Hopkins,  for  the  chaplain's  commission  : — 

"  Dublin,  January  2Sth,  172J. 

"  SIR, — His  Grace,  my  Lord  Lieutenant,  has  been  pleased  to 
consent,  that  the  Reverend  Eubule  Ormsby  be  made  chaplain, 
in  the  room  of  Dr.  Hallifax,  deceased,  to  His  Royal  Highness, 
the  Prince  of  Wales'  own  Royall  Regiment  of  Horse,  now  under 
my  command,  with  which  His  Grace  has  commanded  me  to 
acquaint  you,  and  that  he  desires  a  Commission  may  be  drawn 
accordingly. — I  am,  Sir, 

"  Your  most  humble  and  obedient  servant, 
"  OWEN  WYNNE. 

"  To  Mr.  Secretary  Hopkins." 

"  I  desire  the  Commision  may  bear  date,  the  first  of  this  in- 
stant." 

Mr.  Ormsby's  next  preferment  was  the  vicarage  of  Drum- 
cliff,  from  which  he  was  promoted  to  the  rectory  of  St.  John's. 
With  the  rectory,  he  acquired  through  time,  the  vicarages  of 
Drumcliff  and  Ahamlish,  and  died  about  1769,  rector  of  St. 
John's,  Calry,  Kilmacowen,  and  Killaspugbrone,  as  well  as  vicar 
of  Drumcliff  and  Ahamlish. 

Mr.  Ormsby  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  Manly  Gore,  who  held 
the  rectory  of  St.  John's,  till  1774.  In  1775  Rev.  Wensley 
Bond  became  incumbent  of  St.  John's,  and  continued  in  the 
position  down  to  1820.  He  was  commonly  spoken  of  as  Dean 
Bond. 

The  next  rector  was  Reverend  Charles  Hamilton,  who  died, 
April  the  llth,  1844.  After  Mr.  Hamilton,  came  Reverend 


316  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Edward  Day,  who  resigning,  in  1876,  died  July  the  23rd,  1886, 
and  was  buried  on  the  30th  July,  in  the  cemetery  of  St.  John's 
Church,  where  his  tomh  hears  the  inscription — "  Rev.  Edward 
Day,  died  July  23, 1886  ;  aged  83  years." 

On  Mr.  Day's  resignation,  the  Yenerahle  Archdeacon  Kearney 
the  actual  rector,  was  instituted. 

Some  of  the  curates  of  St.  John's  have  better  claims  to  notice 
than  some  of  the  incumbents.  The  Reverend  Edward  Nicholson, 
who  was  curate  of  the  Reverend  John  Fountanier,in  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  a  man  both  of  zeal  and  talents. 
We  learn  from  the  Dublin  Chronicle,  of  1788,  that  he  estab- 
lished a  free  school  for  the  maintenance,  clothing,  and  instruction 
of  thirty  boys,  increasing  the  number,  with  and  with,  till  it  had 
reached  fifty,  about  the  time  of  his  death,  at  the  age  of 
eighty. 

The  writer  in  the  Chronicle  gives  no  information  as  to  Mr. 
Nicholson's  personal  or  family  relations,  so  that  one  is  at  a  loss 
to  know  whether  he  is  the  Mr.  Nicholson  mentioned  in  the 
report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Endowed  Schools,  as  leaving  a 
lien  of  £120  a  year  on  his  estate,  for  a  school  at  Knocknarea. 
This  gentleman  did  not  confine  his  benefactions  to  pupils  of 
schools ;  for  it  is  related  of  him,  that  he  had  peculiar  pity  for 
"wives  linked  to  dissolute,  careless,  or  inebriated  husbands/' 
and  helped  them  as  far  as  his  means  allowed. 

His  tongue  and  pen,  as  well  as  his  purse4  were  devoted  to  the 
service  of  those  around  him.  It  is  said,  that  he  composed 
several  pious  and  instructive  tracts  for  the  children  of  his  school 
and  others.  His  compositions  were  relished  all  the  more,  as 
they  had  a  spice  of  quaintness  about  them,  such  as  is  found  in 
the  following  lines,  which  he  entitles,  a  "  Receipt  to  cure  a 
plague.  With  the  sword  of  the  Lord  alarm  the  obstinate 
culprit,  who  may  be  subdued  to  repentance  by  fasting,  solitary 
confinement,  and  the  wholesome  rod  of  correction,  from  the 
blossoms  of  which  may  be  distilled,  the  elixir  of  contrition,  with 
bitter  herbs  purging  the  whole  body  of  sin ;  and  with  the  due 
application  of  lenient  balmy  works,  perfectly  restore  the  foul 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  317 


offender  to  pardon  and  peace."*  It  appears  he  tried  his  hand 
at  verse,  and  expounded  the  duty  of  a  child  in  metre.  Two  lines 
of  this  piece  remain  : — 

"  Your  clothes  keep  neat,  when  worn  and  bare  ; 

Be  not  so  foul  as  slovens  are,' ' 

and  they  are  hardly  of  such  merit,  as  to  cause  one  to  regard  the 
disappearance  of  the  rest  as  a  national  loss. 

The  Reverend  James  Armstrong,  who  was  curate  of  St.  John's, 
as  well  as  master  of  a  classical  school  in  the  town,  during  the  closing 
years  of  the  eighteenth,  and  the  opening  years  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, is  described  by  Charles  Phillips,  in  a  note  to  the  Emerald 
Isle,  as  "a  man  of  most  extensive  acquirements,  great  piety,  and 
a  cheerfulness  of  manner,  which  made  every  circle,  in  which  he 
associated,  happy."  The  body  of  the  poem  contains  a  very 
flattering  portrait  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  which  will  be  quoted  later 
on,  in  connection  with  the  facts  of  Charles  Phillip's  life. 

The  Reverend  Mr.  Montgomery,  who  held  the  curacy  of 
St.  John's,  some  years  ago,  was  a  man  of  great  piety  and  con- 
siderable learning.  In  his  ministrations,  while  in  Sligo,  he 
made  the  poor  his  special  care,  and  did  all  he  could,  by  word 
and  example,  to  help  them.  Quitting  his  curacy,  he  joined  the 
Catholic  Church,  where,  after  training  in  an  ecclesiastical 
seminary  and  ordination,  he  was  employed  on  the  English 
mission.  In  his  new  sphere  of  duty,  as  in  the  old,  he  devoted 
himself  in  a  special  manner  to  the  services  of  the  poor,  who, 
in  return,  loved  him  through  life,  and  mourned  him  as  a  father 
at  his  death. 

*  It  is  likely  Mr.  Nicholson  borrowed  the  idea  of  his  "  Receipt "  from  Italy, 
where,  in  the  time  of  Savonarola,  such  pious  prescriptions  were  common,  both 
in  prose  and  verse.  The  following  sample  was  composed  by  a  friend  of 
Savonarola  :— 

"  To  tre  once  almen  di  speme 

Tre  di  fede  e  sei  d'amore 

Due  di  pianto  e  poni  insiema 

Tutto  al  fuoco  del  timore. 

Fa  di  bollir  tre  ore, 

Premi  in  fine  e  aggiunge  tanto 

D'umiltade,  e  dolor  quanto 

Basta  a  far  questa  pazzia." 


318  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


We  learn,  from  various  advertisements  and  news  paragraphs, 
which  appeared  in  the  Sligo  Journal,  in  the  year  1819,  that 
St.  John's  Church  was  then  too  small  to  contain  the  number  of 
Church  Protestants  in  the  benefice.  To  supply  the  accommoda- 
tion wanted,  the  church  of  Calry  was  built  in  1823  ;  and  its  first 
incumbent  was  Reverend  James  Armstrong,  who  was  succeeded 
by  Rev.  Messrs.  Todd,  Shone  (the  present  bishop),  Dowden, 
Heany,  and  Berry,  the  actual  incumbent. 

The  pretty  little  church  and  parsonage  of  Strandhill  are  the 
outcome  of  private  contributions.  To  collect  money  for  the 
work,  a  "Knocknarea  Endowment"  fund  was  started  in  1840, 
of  which  Messrs.  Edward  J.  Cooper,  William  Phibbs,  and  Roger 
C.  Walker,  acted  as  Trustees  ;  and  these  and  other  influential 
local  gentlemen  contributed  liberally  themselves,  and  obtained 
large  subscriptions  from  their  friends  and  the  public.  They 
were  fortunate  in  securing  the  services  of  Sir  John  Benson  as 
architect ;  for  the  church  and  clergyman's  residence  are  not  the 
least  striking  of  the  structures,  on  which  the  gifted  Collooney 
man  has  left  the  trace  of  his  master  hand. 

Strandhill  Church  is  dedicated  to  God,  in  honour  of  St.  Anne, 
as  we  learn  from  an  inscription,  which  stands  over  the  chief 
entrance,  and  which  runs  thus : — IN  HONOREM  B.  ANN^E  DEO 
O.M.  DEDICATA  ^ERE  PRIVATORUM  COLLATO  JEDIFICATA,  A.D. 
MDCCCXLIII. 

The  church,  since  its  foundation  in  1843,  has  been  successively 
served  by  Rev.  Messrs.  Gully,  Hamilton,  Chambers,  Day, 
Coulter,  Hamilton,  and  Galbraith,  the  present  incumbent. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  BOROUGH  OF  SLIGO. 


OLD  SEAL  OF  CORPORATION.  NEW  SEAL  OF  CORPORATION. 

SLIGO  was  one  of  the  new  boroughs  created  in  1613,  the 
order  "  to  draw  forth  a  fiat  of  incorporation  of  the  towne  of 
Sligoe "  being  despatched  by  Lord  Deputy  Chichester  to  the 
Attorney-General  on  the  20th  of  October,  1612,  and  the  actual 
creation  taking  place  on  the  30th  of  March,  1613.  On  this 
occasion  "  the  town  and  all  hereditaments  within  the  precinct 
thereof  were  created  and  incorporated  the  borough  of  Sligo, 
consisting  of  portriffe  and  twelve  burgesses  and  commonalty ; 
the  portriffe  and  burgesses  to  return  two  members  to  Parlia- 
ment;  the  portriffe  to  be  chosen  24th  June,  and  sworn  29  Lh 
September,  before  his  predecessor.  Upon  any  vacancy  within 
the  year,  a  portriffe  to  be  chosen  within  fifteen  days,  and  a 
burgess  within  seven  days,  to  supply  such  vacancy.  To  hold  a 
court  of  record  every  Tuesday,  and  determine  all  actions  of 
debt,  etc.,  not  exceeding  the  sum  of  five  marks  ;  to  assemble  and 


320  HISTORY   OF    SLIGO. 


make  bye-laws ;  to  have  a  mercatory  guild  and  a  common  seal ; 
to  appoint  two  sergeants-at-mace,  and  other  inferior  officers, 
during  behaviour  or  pleasure.  The  portriffe  to  be  clerk  of  the 
market,"  * 

The  names  of  the  first  burgesses  were  : — Provost,  Roger  Jones, 
Esq. ;  burgesses,  Sir  William  TaafFe,  John  Gesbarbe,  Edward 
CroftoD,  "William  Harrison,  Hugh  Jones,  Edward  Brackstone, 
Richard  Robinson,  Thomas  Syngeie,  John  Hopkins,  Thomas 
Reynolds,  Robert  Gymbel,  and  William  Wilson. 

On  the  9th  December,  19th  year  of  his  reign,  James  I.  created 
a  guild  of  the  staple  for  Sligo,  to  be  a  corporation,  making  Roger 
Jones,  Mayor,  and  Edmond  Carpenter,  Andrew  Crean,  Edmond 
Braxton,  Richard  Robinson,  John  Hopkins,  John  Woodward, 
John  O'Fewly,  Robuccus  Crean,  William  Crean,  James  French, 
and  John  French,  merchants,  to  be  a  society,  community,  and 
incorporated  body,  with  a  perpetual  succession.- 

At  first  the  Government  had  some  doubt  whether  Sligo  could 
be  depended  on  to  support  their  policy ;  for  a  letter  of  Sir 
Oliver  St.  John  says,  "  Of  the  boroughs  to  be  erected  in  Con- 
naught,  Roscommon,  Carrick-Drumrusk,  Sligo,  and  Castlebarre, 
all  will  send  Protestants  to  the  Parliament,  unless  some  doubt 
be  of  Sligo  ; "  but  the  authorities  manipulated  the  business  so 
skilfully,  that  Sligo,  in  the  all-important  election  of  1613, 
returned,  as  its  members,  Henry  Andrews,  Clerk  of  the  Crown, 
and  Edward  Southwell,  another  staunch  Protestant  partisan. 

In  1687  James  II.  dissolved  the  corporation  of  Sligo  as  well 
as  the  other  corporations  of  the  country,  substituting  new 
charters  for  those  abolished.  His  Sligo  charter  names  Martin 
O'Connor,  Esq.,  John  Tafe,  Esq.,  Willelm  Gore,  Baronet,  Henrie 
Crofton,  Esq.,  Pierce  Gethin,  Esq.,  James  French,  Esq.,  Philip 
Ormsby,  Esq.,  George  Crofton,  Esq.,  Terence}  McDonnogh,  Esq., 
Walter  Phillips,  Esq.,  Philip  Cox,  merchant,  Jasper  Bret,  Esq., 

*  Liber  Muner urn,  Vol.  I.,  Part  L,  p.  35.  The  Sligo  charters  are  not  found, 
either  in  original  or  copy,  among  the  Corporation  records.  It  was  intended  to 
give  them  in  the  Appendix,  but  the  idea  had  to  be  abandoned,  as  they  would 
occupy  too  much  space. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  321 


John  Crean,  gentleman,  Andrew  Lynch,  farmacapol,  Anthon 
Crean,  merchant,  Peter  Darcy,  merchant,  John  Delaps,  mer- 
chant, Bartholomew  Maly,  merchant,  Thomas  Jones,  Esq., 
Andrew  Martin,  merchant,  and  Charles  Hart,  gentleman,  the 
first  24  free  burgesses.  This  list  of  burgesses,  including  so 
many  of  the  leading  names  of  the  county,  tends  to  prove  that 
the  want  of  social  standing,  sometimes  alleged  against  James 
the  Second's  corporations,  is  without  foundation.  It  is  known 
that  James'  new  charters,  including  that  of  Sligo,  received  their 
death-blow  at  the  Boyne  and  Aughrim,  and  that,  with  the 
triumph  of  William,  the  charter  of  1613  revived. 

Some  of  the  records  of  the  corporation,  are,  no  doubt,  lost, 
for  the  first  entry  in  those  now  in  the  Town  Hall  is  dated  April 
21,  1709.  The  existing  records  are  contained  in  three  volumes, 
all  in  paper,  and  in  folio  form — the  first  named  "  A  Book  of 
Record  1709,"  running  from  1709  to  1754;  the  second  from 
1754  to  1842  ;  and  the  third,  the  one  now  in  use,  beginning  with 
1842,  and  having  for  its  first  entry,  "  A  list  of  Aldermen  and 
Town  Councillors  of  the  Corporation  of  Sligo,  as  returned  by 
the  Revising  Barrister  on  the  25th  day  of  October,  1842." 
Imperfect  though  these  books  are,  and  badly  kept,  as  they 
certainly  were,  they  still  acquaint  us  fairly  with  the  objects  of 
the  Corporation  meetings,  which  were:  first,  to  elect  provosts, 
burgesses,  and  parliamentary  representatives  ;  and,  secondly,  to 
provide  for  the  peace  and  order  of  the  town,  the  cleansing  of  the 
streets,  and  the  regulation  of  the  markets. 

The  "  common  seal,"  being  prescribed  in  the  Charter,  must 
have  been  in  use  from  the  first,  though  it  is  duly  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  we  meet  with  impressions  of  it,  in  the 
Corporation  records.  While  the  device  was  always  the  same, 
the  dies  varied  in  form  and  size,  one  being  oval,  and  two  or 
three  others  circular,  that  most  frequently  employed  having  a 
diameter  of  If  inch.  These  seals  are  no  longer  in  the  Town 
Hall,  though  they  were  seen  there  less  than  twenty  years  ago. 
What  has  become  of  them  ? 

We  learn  from  the  impressions  left,  that  the  device  consisted 

VOL.  I.  X 


322  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


of  a  tower  in  ruins ;  a  tall  tree  near  it,  with,  apparently,  some 
brushwood  around  ;  a  hare  running  across  a  river,  and  a  strand 
studded  with  oysters,  one  of  which  is  attached  to  a  hind  foot  of 
the  animal ;  and  a  rounded  hill,  or  mountain,  in  the  background. 
It  is  strange  that  the  townspeople  all  misunderstand  this  device. 
According  to  them,  the  ruin,  which  is  its  chief  feature,  is  the 
round  tower  of  Drumcliff,  while  the  hare,  they  say,  is  hastening 
from  that  tower  to  Sligo,  to  signify  that  Drumcliff  had  ceased  to 
exist  as  a  town,  and  that  Sligo  had  sprung  up  in  its  stead.  The 
Town  Council,  in  a  formal  resolution  of  the  9th  April,  1871, 
adopts  and  sanctions  the  popular  opinion  respecting  the  ruin, 
and  orders,  that  in  future,  the  official  seal  of  the  Corporation 
shall  show  the  "  round  tower."*  Of  the  tree,  the  brushwood, 
and  the  hill,  the  people  seem  to  have  formed  no  opinion. 

It  is  unpleasant  to  have  to  note,  that  the  archaeology  of  the 
Town  Council  is  at  fault,  and  that  the  round  tower  of  Drum- 
cliff,  or  any  other  "round  tower,"  has  as  little  to  do  with  the 
genuine  arms  of  Sligo,  as  the  tower  of  Babel.  A  glance  at  the 
ruin,  in  the  impressions  of  the  seal,  shows  that,  the  tower  in 
question  is  a  square  one,  and  no  other  than  the  tower  of  Sligo 
Abbey  ;  and  if  an  inspection  and  examination  of  the  impression 
left  any  doubt  on  the  mind,  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  design, 
the  doubt  would  be  removed  by  a  letter  of  Sir  Francis  Leycester, 
Gorst,  England,  which  conveys  his  resignation  of  the  office  of 
burgess,  in  the  Corporation  of  Sligo,  and,  which  may  be  seen,  in 
copy,  in  the  Minute  Book  of  the  Town  Council.  In  this  letter, 
written  in  1722,  Sir  Francis  recites,  that  he  was  elected 

*  The  resolution  is  dated,  Sligo,  April  3rd,  1871,  and  runs  thus — "  Resolved  : 
That  the  duplicate  seals  of  the  Corporation,  hitherto  used,  be  no  longer  used, 
and  that,  henceforth,  until  rescinded  by  resolution  of  the  Town  Council,  the 
new  seal  which  has  been  procured,  with  the  words  impressed,  viz. :  "  Corpora- 
tion of  Sligo,  1612,  J.R.,'  and  «  Sligo  Borough  Improvement  Act,  1869,'  bearing 
the  device  of  a  round  tower,  a  tree,  with  a  hare  having  its  foot  caught  by  an 
oyster,  and  which  is  impressed  on  this  resolution,  be  adopted,  and  shall  be  the 
common  seal  of  the  Corporation  of  Sligo,  for  all  acts  necessary  to  be  done  by 
that  body  under  their  common  seal. 

"  CHARLES  ANDERSON,  MAYOR. 
«  9th  April,  1871." 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  323 

"  burgess  of  the  Abbey-ville  of  Sligo,"  *  that  is,  of  the  town  of  the 
abbey  of  Sligo ;  thus,  proving  that  the  tower  in  the  arms  of  the 
town,  is  the  tower  of  the  abbey.  Sir  Francis  Leycester,  at  this 
time,  was  owner  of  the  tolls  and  customs  of  Sligo,f  which  he 
inherited  from  his  ancestor,  Sir  Robert  Leycester,  who,  among 
other  large  grants,  obtained  from  James  I.,  in  several  counties 
of  Ireland,  received  one,  comprising  "  the  site,  etc.,  of  the  late 
Franciscan  (should  be  Dominican)  friary  of  Sligo,  the'Jbuildings, 
orchard,  and  gardens  thereof,  and  1J  quarter  of  land  adjoining, 
-with  two  weirs  near  the  said  house,  upon  the  river  of  Sligo, 
parcel  of  the  estate  of  said  monastery."  Very  probably  it  was 
Sir  Francis  himself  that  had  the  seal  made,  and  the  arms  en- 
graved ;  for  his  family  had  great  taste  for  history  and  antiquities, 
one  of  them,  Sir  Peter  Leycester,  being  described  by  Sir  Bernard 
Burke  (Landed  Gentry — Article,  Leycester)  as  the  (<  well  known 
historian  of  Cheshire."  It  may  be  mentioned,  that  Sligo  was 
not  the  only  town  that  had  an  ecclesiastical  edifice  in  its  arms ; 
for  the  Corporation  Seal  of  Irishtown,  Kilkenny,  bore  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  west  end  of  St.  Canice's  Cathedral) 

As  to  the  other  objects  figured  in  the  device :  the  tree  and 

*  "  Whereas,  I  was  elected,  and  am  a  Burgess  of  the  Abbey- vill  or  town  of 
Sligo,  and  whereas,  by  distance  I  cannot  discharge  the  duty  of  said  office,  I 
hereby  resign,  etc. 

"  F.  LECESTER." 

August  1th,  1722,  Gorst. 

t  This  appears  from  the  following  letter,  addressed  to  Win.  Smith,  Esq.,  by 
Percy  Gethins,  who  seems  to  have  been  agent  of  Sir  F.  Leycester  : — 

"  Sligoe  ye  2nd  of  May,  1709. 

"  Dr.  Sir.  Mr.  Spranger,  by  Sir  Fra.  Lester's  order,  is  to  sett  ye  Tolls  and 
Customs. 

"PERCY  GETHINS." 

t  Kilkenny  ArcluEological  Journal,  Vol.  I.,  p.  486. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  a  document  has  turned  up,  which  confirms  the 
view  advocated  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  tower,  and  leaves  no  room 
for  doubt,  that  it  stands  for  the  tower  of  the  abbey.  The  document  in  question, 
is  the  very  important  inquisition  taken  at  Rosslee,  in  1616,  respecting  the  lands 
of  the  county,  and  their  then  possessors.  In  enumerating  the  possessions  of 
Sir  William  Taaffe,  the  inquisition  begins  thus :—"  Sir  William  Taaffe,  of 
Ballimota,  is  seized  as  of  fee  of  the  abbey-town  of  Sligo." 


324  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


brushwood  represent  the  wood  *  which  covered  the  site  of  the 
abbey  in  St.  Patrick's  time ;  the  hare,  with  the  oyster  on  its 
foot,  and  oysters  strewn  in  its  path,  the  noted  shelliness  from 
which  the  river  got  the  name  of  Sligech,  or  the  shelly  river  ; 
and  the  hill,  or  mountain,  in  the  back-ground,  either  Benbulben 
or  Knocknarea.  From  this  explanation,  the  reader  will  learn, 
that  the  device  of  the  "  common  seal,"  gives  a  good  idea  of  the 
origin  of  the  town  and  its  surroundings,  and,  thatit  is  to  Holy  Cross 
Convent  the  county  town  is  indebted  for  its  armorial  bearings. 

The  actual  insignia  of  the  Corporation  are  two  silver  maces — 
duplicates  or  facsimiles  of  each  other — and  a  Mayor's  gold 
chain.  In  a  very  interesting  account  of  these  insignia,  Mr.  Francis 
Nelson  writes  of  the  maces : — "  The  maces  are  sterling  silver,  of 
antique  design,  bearing  the  Irish  Hall  Mark,  1702,  measuring 
18  inches  long,  and  weighing  32  troy  ounces  each  ,  .  .  On 
the  side  of  the  head  of  mace,  are  four  medallions,  embossed, 
representing  the  countries  included  in  the  Royal  Title — those 
on  the  dexter  side,  being  the  Rose  and  the  Thistle,  for  England 
and  Scotland,  respectively,  and  on  the  sinister  side,  the  Harp 
and  the  Fleur-de-lys  for  Ireland  and  France,  each,  and  all  four 
being  surmounted  by  a  Royal  Crown.  Beneath  these  medallions, 
around  the  head  of  mace,  is  engraved  the  following  inscription : 
— '  The  Guift  of  Samuel  Walton,  Alderman,  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives for  the  burrough  of  Sligoe,  Anno  Domini,  1703.'  " 

Of  Alderman  Walton  there  seems  to  be  nothing  known, 
except  what  is  stated  in  the  inscription,  that  he  was  represen- 
tative of  the  borough  of  Sligo  in  1703.  If,  as  we  may  infer 
from  the  name  Walton,  the  town  is  indebted  to  an  Englishman, 
for  one  of  its  insignia,  it  is  all  the  more  gratifying  that  another 
of  them,  and  that  the  more  valuable,  is  the  gift  of  an  Irishman, 
and  a  townsman,  Mr.  Bernard  Colleary.  Feeling  the  want  of 
such  an  ornament  for  the  Mayor  of  Sligo,  at  a  time  when  the 
mayors  of  other  towns  were  in  the  habit,  on  solemn  occasions,  of 
wearing  this  badge  of  office,  Mr.  Colleary  generously  devoted  to  its 
purchase,  the  large  addition  to  the  mayor's  salary  voted  by  the 
*  Docurnenta  de  S.  Patricio,  etc. ;  E.  Hogan,  S.  J.,  p.  85. 


HISTORY  OF  SLTGO.  325 


Town  Council,  in  1882,  the  year  of  his  first  mayoralty.  This 
sacrifice  was  singularly  creditable  to  Mr.  Colleary ;  but  it  would 
be  ungenerous  not  to  record,  that  the  mayors  who  had  preceded 
him  associated  themselves  with  him  in  the  generous  proceeding, 
by  contributing  each  a  sum  sufficient  to  add  to  the  chain  a 
separate  link  commemorative  of  his  own  year  of  office.  The 
following  full  and  graphic  description  of  the  chain,  was  drawn 
up  by  Mr.  Francis  Nelson,  and  kindly  supplied  to  the  writer  by 
Messrs.  Nelson  Brothers,  who,  it  may  be  here  remarked, 
executed  the  order  for  the  chain,  and  in  a  way  which  gave  the 
Town  Council  a  work  of  art  as  sterling  as  the  gold  of  which  it  is 
made,  and  gave  it  at  considerably  less  cost  than  that  at  which 
an  inferior  article  could  be  procured  elsewhere — these  spirited 
Sligomen,not  only  decliningto  make  any  profit  by  the  transaction, 
but  taking  on  themselves  sundry  unforeseen  incidental  expenses 
incurred  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  order : — "  The  Mayoral  chain 
is  of  modern  design,  18  carat  gold  Hall-marked  on  every 
separate  link  and  shield ;  it  weighs  19 \  troy  ounces,  and  is  of 
singularly  fine  workmanship  and  finish;  it  is  composed  of  eigh- 
teen shields,  connected  together  by  cable  links,  double,  and  the 
shield  and  centre  links  are  each  surmounted  by  a  single 
shamrock,  and  bear  on  the  obverse,  the  Crest,  Motto,  and  Arms, 
and  on  the  reverse,  the  name  and  date  of  year  of  office  of  each 
Mayor  presenting  it.  The  centre  shield  is  rather  larger  thau 
the  others,  and  is  backed  by  two  Irish  Harps  ornamented  with 
shamrocks,  and  crowned  with  the  Royal  crown,  finished  and 
picked  out  with  ermine  and  crimson  green  enamel.  Pendant 
(and  detachable)  from  the  shield  is  the  medallion  bearing  the 
arms  of  the  Borough  of  Sligo,  Incorporated  by  charter  from 
King  James  I.,  1612.  It  is  circular  in  form,  and  surrounded  by 
a  wreath  of  shamrocks,  rising  from  the  top  of  which  are  a  pair 
of  Irish  wolf-dogs  at  gaze,  between  which  rises  a  spray  of  sham- 
rocks. The  well-known  curious  device  of  the  Sligo  arms  is 
beautifully  enamelled  in  Heraldic  colours  on  the  obverse  of  the 
medallion,  ringed  with  the  inscription,  in  black  letters,  "  Corpo- 
ration of  Sligo  1612,"  and  on  the  reverse,  "  Presented  principally 


826  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


by  Bernard  Collery,  Mayor  of  Sligo  for  1882,  and  former  Mayors." 

It  may  be  added,  that  the  Mayor,  for  the  time  being,  is  the 
custodian  of  those  valuable  insignia. 

The  first  provost  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Records  is  James 
Bennett,  the  town  clerk  and  recorder  being,  then,  George 
Bennett.  John  De  Butts,  who  succeeded  James  Bennett  as 
provost,  was  a  man  of  some  local  importance,  but  had  soon 
to  give  way  to  the  Wynnes,  who  began  to  figure,  at  this  time, 
in  the  public  life  of  Sligo.  The  Wynnes  were  not  long  con- 
nected with  the  Corporation  till  they  became  its  rulers.  It  was 
on  the  20th  March,  1711-12,  the  connection  began,  in  the 
person  of  Captain  Owen  Wynne,  who  was  then  elected  a  free 
burgess  of  the  borough  of  Sligo  ;  and  in  the  year  1722,  they  were 
already  masters  of  the  situation,  the  Honourable  Major-General 
Owen  Wynne,  Captain  John  Wynne,  and  Major  John  Ffolliott, 
a  connection  of  the  family,  being,  that  year,  elected  burgesses, 
which  gave  the  Wynnes  a  dominant  influence  in  the  Corpora- 
tion. This  result  was  not  brought  about  without  some  sharp 
practice,  and  a  kind  of  coup  d'etat  on  a  small  scale. 

Before  the  new  comers  could  become  supreme,  it  was  necessary 
to  get  rid  of  those  who  stood  in  the  way,  and,  in  particular,  of  the 
burgess  and  ex-provost,  John  De  Butts,  and  the  town  clerk  and 
recorder,  George  Bennett.  The  place  was  soon  made  rather 
hot  for  this  pair  ;  and  when,  with  a  view  of  having  a  pretext  for 
expelling  De  Butts,  the  Corporation  called  on  him  to  appear  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Council,  he  excused  himself  by  the  following 
letter,  which  shows  that,  whatever  temper  may  have  been  some- 
times exhibited  in  debates  of  the  present  Town  Council,  things 
were  carried  much  further  in  the  good  times  of  old : — • 
"  The  Worshipful  Mitchelbourne  Knox,  Provost  of  Sligo. 

"  WORSHIPFUL  SIR, — I  received  your  summons  requiring  me 
to  appear  before  you  on  Tuesday,  the  23rd  instant,  to  show 
cause  why  I  should  not  be  disfranchised  for  my  manifest 
misbehaviour.  I  know  no  cause,  if  it  be  not  for  the  conscien- 
tious discharge  of  my  duty,  and  for  fear  of  being  turned  out  by 
the  shoulders  and  sent  to  the  stocks  by  you,  as  one  of  my 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  327 


brethren  was  ordered  to  be,  and  all  this,  and  much  more,  is  noe 
misbehaviour  in  these  favourites  of  yours,  and  to  avoid  the  like 
treatment,  both  I  and  my  brother,  had,  in  your  presence,  with- 
out the  least  resentment,  is  the  cause  I  do  not  wait  on  you  in 
person,  that  am,  Worshipful  Sir, 

"  Your  most  humble  servant, 

"  JOHN  DE  BUTTS." 

John  De  Butts'  friend,  or,  as  he  calls  him,  his  "brother,"  George 
Bennett,  was  disposed  of  in  the  same  fashion  ;  for,  having  been 
called  on,  says  the  Book  of  Record,  "to  show  cause  why  he 
should  not  be  disfranchised,  he  only  endeavoured  to  provoke 
several  of  the  members  to  use  him  ill/'  so  that  there  was  no- 
thing for  it  but  to  expel  him — the  whole  proceeding  resembling, 
a  good  deal,  the  old  affair  of  the  fox  and  the  lamb. 

The  Council  being  thus  purged  of  these  obnoxious  members, 
the  Wynnes  might  now  manage  it  as  they  liked,  the  result 
being  that  the  owner  of  Hazelwood,  for  the  time  being,  had  the 
Corporation  of  Sligo,  as  completely  as  his  own  household,  under 
control;  and  when  vacancies  occurred  in  the  body,  by  death 
or  other  cause,  the  persons  elected  were  always  members,  con- 
nections, friends,  or  creatures,  of  the  Wynne  family. 

The  first  and  second  class  gentry  of  the  county  were  generally 
represented  in  the  Council.  Arthur  Cooper,  who  died  in  1710, 
had  been  a  burgess,  as  was  also  his  son,  Joshua,  elected  in  1738, 
and  his  grandson,  another  Joshua,  who  was  elected  in  1771, 
and  who,  in  a  letter  written  from  Kevin  Street,  Dublin,  resigned 
in  1790.  The  Council  was  hardly  ever  without  one  or  more 
of  the  Ormsbys  of  Willowbrook.  Ralph  Gore  was  burgess  in  1711, 
and  complaisantly  resigned  to  make  room  for  Captain  Owen 
Wynne,  and  thus  introduce  into  the  body  the  family  that  was 
soon  to  dominate  it.  Ralph  was  followed  by  Richard  Gore  and 
Arthur  Gore.  The  late  Colonel  Perceval  joined  in  1817,  but, 
getting  tired  of  the  position,  resigned  in  1827.  The  Knoxes  of 
Bridge  Street,  who  were  always  steady  henchmen  of  the  Wynnes, 
figure  constantly  in  the  Council  all  through  the  18th  century— 


328  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Mitchelbourne  Knox  being  elected  to  it  in  1715,  John,  in  1727, 
George,  in  1750,  in  the  room  of  John,  who  died  that  year,  and 
a  second  Mitchelburne  in  1790,  vice  George,  deceased.  This 
George  was  treated  with  great  distinction  by  his  brother 
burgesses ;  and,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  when  he  was  pre- 
vented by  illness,  or  very  advanced  age,  from  coming  to  their 
place  of  assembly,  they  adjourned  to  his  house,  and  held  their 
meeting  in  his  chamber.  Arthur  Martin  was  sworn  freeman  in 
1738,  and  elected  burgess  in  1754,  while  Edward  Martin  became 
burgess  the  same  year,  and  succeeded  William  Yernon  as 
provost  in  1759.  The  foregoing  are  the  names  one  meets  with 
most  frequently  among  the  members  of  the  Council,  but  there 
was  hardly  a  name  of  any  note  in  the  county,  as  Gethin,  Booth, 
Parke,  Hillas,  Gibson,  Phillips,  Gilmor,  Cox,  Holmes,  Soden, 
Fawcet,  Slade,  Bulteel,  Betteridge,  etc.,  that  may  not  be  found 
once,  or  oftener,  on  the  burgess  roll  of  the  Corporation  of  Sligo. 
O'Hara,  perhaps,  is  the  only  name  conspicuous  by  its  absence, 
and  the  absence,  no  doubt,  has  its  significance.  While  the 
Wynnes  surrounded  themselves,  in  this  way,  with  their  Sligo 
friends,  they  took  care  also,  to  arm  their  relations  living  at  a 
distance — the  Coles,  Farnhams,  Sanders — with  the  franchises 
of  the  borough,  in  order  that,  if  any  hostile  local  combination 
threatened  or  showed  itself,  it  might  be  crushed  with  the  aid  of 
this  friendly  family  reserve. 

The  duties  of  the  Town  Council  were  few  and  easy.  The 
municipal  and  parliamentary  elections,  which  formed  a  large 
portion  of  these  duties,  were  little  else  than  matters  of  form, 
without  any  of  the  heat  or  stir,  which,  till  very  recently,  used 
to  accompany  such,  contests.  The  result  was  fixed  beforehand 
at  Hazelwood,  and  the  burgesses  assembled  at  Sligo  only  to 
register  the  decision,  the  proceedings  occupying  merely  a  few 
minutes,  and  the  record,  with  the  exception  of  names  and  dates, 
running  always  as  in  the  following  instance: — "Burrough  de 
Sligoe — We,  the  Provost  and  free  burgesses  of  the  above  Cor- 
poration, being  assembled  and  met  together,  doe  unanimously 
•  ellect  and  choose  Owen  Wynne,  Esq.,  to  be  Provost  of  the  above 

I 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  329 


Burrough  for  one  whole  year,  commencing  the  feast  of  St. 
Michael  the  Archangel  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof,  who  is 
first  to  take  the  usual  oaths,  and  then  to  enter  into  the  office  of 
Provost  of  the  said  Burrough,  as  witness  our  hands  this  24th 
day  of  June,  1725.  Owen  Wynne,  Provost ;  Richard  Gore, 
William  Smith,  Mitchelburne  Knox,  John  Jamieson,  John 
Wynne,  Thomas  Jennings." 

A  parliamentary  election  was,  if  possible,  a  still  tamer  affair. 
For  example :  upon  a  vacancy  occurring  in  the  representation  of 
the  borough,  by  the  death  of  Owen  Wynne,  in  1757,  the  Provost, 
and  three  or  four  other  burgesses,  assembled  in  a  room ;  and 
while  the  burgesses  were  chatting  about  the  weather,  or  some 
equally  important  topic,  the  Provost  got  through  the  work  of 
the  day,  by  inserting  on  the  minutes  this  record  : — "  I,  William 
Vernon,  Provost,  with  the  assent  and  consent  of  the  rest  of  the 
burgesses,  freemen,  and  electors,  have  elected  William  Ormsby, 
Willowbrook,  to  represent  this  burough  in  Parliament." 

Even  the  first  election  to  the  Imperial  Parliament  after  the 
Union,  was  disposed  of  in  the  same  off-hand  manner.  The 
following  is  that  election  minute : — "  We,  the  Provost  and  bur- 
gesses of  the  said  burough,  being  assembled  in  the  Town  Office, 
in  the  said  burough,  pursuant  to  notice,  have  made  choice  of 
and  elected  Owen  Wynne,  Esq.,  to  be  a  Burgess  of  our  said 
burough  of  Sligo,  to  attend  the  Parliament  to  be  held  at  West- 
minster, in  that  part  of  the  United  kingdom,  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  called  England,  with  all  convenient  speed,  accord- 
ing to  the  tenor  of  the  precept  to  the  Provost,  directed  by  James 
Crofton,  Esq.,  High  Sheriff  of  the  County  Sligo.  Witness  our 
hands,  and  the  seal  of  the  Corporation  of  Sligo,  aforesaid,  the 
24th  day  of  June,  1802.  Thomas  Soden,  Provost;  Wm.  Gill- 
mor,  Robt.  K.  Manly,  Saml.  Bulteel,  0.  Wynne." 

Nor  did  the  cleansing  of  the  streets  give  much  trouble  to  the 
Council.  Little  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  Sligo  was 
small  in  comparison  of  what  it  is  at  present ;  for  it  extended, 
east  and  west,  only  from  Castle  Street  to  John  Street,  and, 
north  and  south,  only  from  Holborn  Street  to  High  Street,  al 


330  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


the  outlying  portions  being  later  additions.  About  that  time, 
the  Charter  School  was  stated  by  John  Howard,  to  stand 
"  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  Sligo  ; "  and  somewhat  earlier  the 
abbey  was  spoken  of  as  "  near  the  town,"  a  phrase  which,  con- 
sidering the  proximity  of  Castle  Street,  could  only  mean,  that 
the  building  was  detached  from  the  town.  In  these  days,  turf 
was  cut  between  John  Street  and  Wine  Street ;  what  is  now 
Pound  Street,  was  the  country  road  to  Ballysadare  and 
Collooney ;  the  north  side  of  Forthill  was  a  first-rate  covert  for 
game  and  a  favourite  resort  of  sportsmen  ;  while  the  southern 
slopes,  since  adorned  with  such  striking  structures,  public  and 
private — the  showy,  but  well  built  Model  School,  the  imposing 
Protestant  Church  of  Calry,  the  twin  institutions  of  fever  hospital 
and  infirmary,  which  for  situation,  proportions,  and  accommoda- 
tion, are  inferior  to  nothing  of  the  kind  in  Ireland,  and  many 
private  residences,  such  as  Mr.  Harper  Campbell's,  and  others, 
superior,  on  the  whole,  to  those  in  other  parts  of  the  town — 
were  then  without  buildings  of  any  kind,  and  formed,  from  the  sum- 
mit to  the  river's  edge,  the  long,  naked,  talus  of  the  Green  Fort. 

And  the  town  was  then  shabby  as  well  as  small.  Whatever 
Major  Wood-Martin  may  say  to  the  contrary,  Sligo  was  never 
walled,  though  the  project  of  surrounding  it  with  a  wall  was 
more  then  once  entertained.  A  letter  of  November  10,  1577, 
from  Sir  Nicholas  Malbie  to  Walsingham,  states  that  the 
merchants  of  Sligo  desired  to  wall  their  town ;  and  Sir  Richard 
Bingham,  writing,  ten  years  later,  to  the  treasurer,  observes,  t(  If 
it  shall  please  your  lordship  to  procure  warrant  from  her  Majesty 
for  the  granting  of  a  corporation  to  the  town  of  Sligo,  myself  will 
find  such  means  as  the  town  shall  be  walled  without  any  charge 
to  Her  Majesty."  Nothing  came  of  these  or  other  efforts,  so 
that  Sligo  remained  and  continued  all  through  an  open  town. 

Owing  very  much  to  this  want  of  protection,  costly  houses 
were  little  built  before  the  present  century.     Unlike  the  stately 
structures  of  Gal  way,  and  of  the  southern  cities,  the  houses  of 
Sligo  were  thatched  cabins,  with  the  exception,  first,  of  two  or 
three  so-called  castles  or  stone  houses,  erected  in  Castle  Street, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  331 


in  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  and,  second,  of 
four  or  five  stone-built  and  slated  houses  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Mr.  Martin's,  in  Knox's  Street;  Mr.  Debutt  the  wine 
merchant's,  in  the  same  street,  now  occupied  by  Messrs.  Robin- 
son and  Kells,  and  lately  re-roofed  and  repaired  by  them  ;  Mr. 
Everard's,  or  Everett's  house  in  Old  Market  Street,  which  was 
recently  occupied  by  the  late  Mr.  Tuite,  and  has  been  also 
re-roofed ;  the  residence  of  Provost  Soden,  in  Quay  Street,  on 
the  site  of  the  present  college ;  the  fine  old  Lungy  House,  and 
the  Custom  House.  The  shops  had  all  a  dingy  look.  Instead 
of  the  stately  fronts,  and  the  perches  of  plate  glass,  which  are 
now  to  be  seen  in  several  large  business  establishments,  nothing 
was  then  to  be  met  with  but  little  beggarly  sashes  of  half-a- 
dozen  panes  or  so,  each  pane  not  more  than  five  or  six  inches 
square,  the  whole  window  admitting  so  little  light,  that  candles 
had  to  be  used  early  in  the  day  to  enable  people  inside  to  see 
what  they  were  doing. 

Thomas  Corkran  was  one  of  the  first  in  modern  time,  that  isr 
since  the  days  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo,  to  give  an  impulse  to 
building  in  Sligo.  Though,  for  some  reason,  now  unknown,  he 
was  called,  by  his  contemporaries,  Thomas  Gallda — Thomas  the 
Anglicized — it  is  pretty  certain  he  was  a  native  of  Sligo,  and  son 
or  grandson  of  another  Thomas  Corkran,  whose  name  occurs  in 
the  reports  of  the  Provost's  Court,  under  the  date  of  July  5, 1720, 
in  the  case  of  "  Thomas  Corkran,  plaintiff,  and  William  Frizzell, 
defendant."  After  arranging  terms  with  the  Provost,  who  had 
received  power  from  the  Corporation, "  to  give  up  the  slip  at 
the  Newbridge  to  Corkran,  he  to  give  up,  in  return,  seven  feet 
of  his  ground  in  breadth,  and  also  to  leave  a  water  passage,  with 
stone  steps,  in  the  new  street  he  was  about  to  make,"  Thomas 
Gallda  built  the  fine  houses  known  now  as  Corkran's  Mall,  and, 
at  right  angles  with  them,  the  street  known  as  Thomas  Street — 
the  Mall  getting  its  name  from  Corkran's  surname,  and  the 
street  from  his  Christian  name,  Thomas.  The  stones  of  the 
Abbey  walls  were  employed  in  these  erections. 

Tom  Gallda  did  not  fare  the  better,  in  the  end,  for  meddling 


332  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


with  the  Abbey.  He  was  married  to  one  of  the  Fitzgeralds  of 
Turlougb,  a  family  of  fire  eaters,  and  Mrs.  Corkran  had  her  full 
share  of  the  spirit  of  her  kindred.  Being  at  a  fashionable  ball, 
and  her  fan  dropping,  by  some  accident,  on  the  floor,  she  called 
on  her  husband,  who  was  present,  to  take  it  up,  but  he  being  in 
ill  humour,  at  the  moment,  told  her  to  stoop  for  it  herself. 
This  was  more  than  a  Fitzgerald  could  brook,  so  instead  of 
taking  up  the  fan  she  took  up  her  slipper  and  struck  Corkran 
with  it  on  the  cheek  before  all  in  the  room.  Whether  this  was 
the  one  solitary  provocation  received  by  Thomas  Corkran,  from 
his  wife,  during  their  marriage  career,  or  was,  on  the  contrary, 
the  last  drop  that  caused  the  already  full  cup  of  his  mortifications 
to  overflow,  the  result  was  very  serious ;  for,  in  a  day  or  two,  he 
sold  off  his  property,  and  went  with  his  sons  to  the  West  Indies, 
leaving  behind  him  his  high-spirited  wife,  and,  what  was  more 
blameworthy,  two  daughters,  one  of  whom,  it  may  be  added, 
became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Dolan,  a  small  shopkeeper,  of  High 
Street,  and  died  about  forty  years  ago.  Such  was  the  end,  in 
Sligo,  of  the  builder  of  Corkran's  Mall. 

The  streets  were  not  in  these  days,  half  their  present  width,  those 
who  formed  them,  thinking  only  of  the  business  of  their  own  time, 
when  there  were  no  carts  or  cars,  and  when  all  the  traffic  was 
carried  on  by  means  of  pack-horses,  or  asses.  The  consequence 
was,  that  when  carts  came  into  use,  towards  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  present,  there  was  hardly 
room  for  two  of  them  abreast,  so  that  even  in  Market  Street,  if 
two  carts  happened  to  enter  it  at  the  same  time,  one  had  to 
pull  up  till  the  other,  that  blocked  it,  got  out  of  the  way. 

The  scavenging  staff  of  the  Corporation  could  not  be  very 
effective,  for  it  consisted  of  only  one  labourer,  who  was  appointed 
in  1727,  at  £6  a  year.  Up  to  that,  the  streets  were  left  very 
much  to  nature's  care  and  mending.  Being  without  pave- 
ment, without  sidewalks,  and  with  runnels  of  muddy  water,  which 
have  been  since  covered,  flowing  over  some  streets,  as  Market 
Street,  and  Old  Market  Street,  the  passer-by  had  to  pick  his 
steps,  when  moving  along ;  while,  in  Spring  and  Summer,  he 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


had  to  encounter  dung  heaps  lying  in  his  path,  sometimes  to 
get  out  of  the  way  of  ravenous  pigs  that  crossed  him,  and  again, 
to  run  the  gauntlet  with  sturdy  beggars  who  came  from  the 
country  to  ply  their  trade  in  the  town.  These  nuisances  gave 
the  Corporation  some  trouble;  and,  in  1711,  a  beadle  was 
appointed  at  £4  per  annum,  to  "  keep  Sligo  clear  of  strange 
beggars,"  who  might  be  known  by  their  not  having  the  "  badges  " 
which  town  beggars  were  authorized  and  obliged  to  wear ;  in 
1737,  and  again  in  1760,  the  inhabitants  were  ordered,  under 
penalty,  to  sweep  before  their  doors,  to  keep  the  streets  clear  of 
dung,  and  to  remove  it  on  horses'  backs ;  and  in  1760,  the 
sergeants  of  the  mace  and  halberdiers  were  commanded  "  to 
take  up  any  hog  or  swine  of  any  sort,  found  within  the  streets, 
or  by-lanes  ;  5s.  to  be  levied  for  every  hog  so  found,  one  half  of 
such  sum  to  be  paid  to  the  informer,  the  other  half,  to  the  rector 
or  curate  of  the  parish,  for  the  poor  of  the  parish."  The  rector 
could  hardly  like  going  half,  in  this  way,  with  the  informer. 

These  admonitions,  then,  to  the  inhabitants,  to  sweep  before 
their  doors,  and  the  employment  of  one  scavenger,  seem  to  com- 
prise all  the  Council  did  towards  the  cleansing  of  the  streets, 
up  to  1769,  when,  what  was  then  regarded  as  a  great  effort  to 
improve  them  took  place.  A  public  meeting  of  the  Corporation, 
and  of  the  leading  inhabitants,  being  held  that  year,  to  take  the 
state  of  the  town  into  consideration,  it  was  resolved  to  levy 
£77  8s.  9d.,  for  the  repairs  of  the  streets  and  lanes  ;  and  as 
paid  clerks  of  works  were  unknown  in  those  days,  the  following 
inhabitants,  whose  names  may  have  an  interest  for  many,  were 
deputed  by  the  meeting  to  applet  the  money,  and  superintend 
the  work  in  their  respective  districts : — Henry  Thornton,  Esq., 
and  Mr.  Arthur  Martin,  for  High  Street ;  W.  O'Beirne,  Esq., 
and  Mr.  Robert  Stanley,  for  Castle  Street ;  Mr.  William  Gibson, 
the  elder,  and  Mr.  John  Gibson,  for  Radcliffe  Street ;  the  said 
Mr.  William  Gibson,  and  John  Gibson,  for  John's  Lane  to  the 
further  church  gate ;  George  Knox,  Esq.,  and  Mr.  Abraham 
Martin,  for  Bridge  Street ;  Mr.  Thomas  Williamson,  and  Mr. 
James  Gibson,  for  Stephen  Street ;  and  Mr.  Robert  Ormsby, 


334  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


and  Mr.  Matthew  Babington,  from   Mrs.  Widdon's  corner  to 
Robert  Stanley's,  in  the  present  Bridge  Street. 

In  the  minutes  of  the  Council,  there  is  mention,  more  than 
once,  of  the  public  passes  to  the  river.     As  several  of  the  houses, 
instead  of  being  joined  in  a  line,  as  all  are  now,  were  more  or 
less  detached,  there  were  between  some  of  them,  private  paths 
to  the  river ;  but  in  addition  to  these,  there  were,  on  the  south 
eide  of  the  town,  from  Castle  Street  to  the  river,  two  public 
passes,  which  were  kept  in  order,  at  the  common  expense ;  and 
of  them  we  read  the  following  resolution,  passed  at  a  public 
meeting  of  the  provost,  burgesses,  freemen,  and  other,  the  in- 
habitants of  the   borough,   held  on  the  5th  October,  1754 : — 
"  We  do  find,  that  the  water  lane,  leading  from  Castle  Street 
to  the  river  Garvogue,  is  very  much  out  of  repair,  to  the  pre- 
judice of  the  free  burgesses,  freemen,  and  others,  the  inhabitants, 
and  that  the  same  be  repaired,  and  a  slip  made  down  to  the 
water,  for  the  benefit  of  the  burough,  to  prevent  carts  and  carrs 
from  passing  that  way,  and  that  the  slip  at  the  new  bridge  be 
repaired,  for  such  as  make  use  of  carts  and  carrs,  to  draw  water 
from  said  river,  and   that  Mr.  Joseph    Davey,  Mr.  Abraham 
Martin,  and  Mr.  Charles  Martin,  be  overseers,  to  see  the  work 
done." 

The  river  is  much  changed  in  appearance  since  the  time  of 
that  resolution.  Then,  and  a  good  while  after,  along  the  left 
bank,  large  stones  rose  here  and  there  over  the  water,  giving 
the  stream  a  rugged,  agitated  look,  very  different  from  the 
broad,  tranquil  surface  which  it  generally  presents  to  the  eye 
at  present.  It  was  these  stones  at  the  water's  edge,  and  on 
the  bank,  that  gave  the  adjoining  townland  the  name  of 
Garvagh,  or  rough  place,  a  name,  which  in  the  course  of  time, 
passed  to  the  river  itself,  under  the  forms  of  Garvagh  and  Gar- 
vogue,  the  rough  river.  Some  writers,  including  Lewis,  in  his 
Topographical  Dictionary  of  Ireland,  take  Garvogue  to  be  the 
old  and  proper  name  of  the  river,  but  in  this  they  are  certainly 
mistaken,  for  all  old  authorities  are  unanimous  in  calling  it 
Bligeach,  or  The  Sligo ;  and  it  is  so  called  in  James  the  First's 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  335 


grants,  as  in  that  to  Robert  Leycester,  where  the  phrase  is  "upon 
the  river  of  Sligo  ;"  and,  as  far  as  the  writer  has  been  able  to 
make  out,  Garvagh  was  applied,  for  the  first  time,  to  the  river, 
in  the  deed  of  partition  of  Sligo,  between  the  Earl  of  StrafFord, 
Joshua  Wilson,  and  Reverend  Doctor  John  Leslie. 

To  Mr.  Abraham  Martin  we  are  indebted  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Sligeach,  as  it  was  he  that  rooted  up  the  rocks,  and 
gave  unimpeded  passage  to  the  water,  forming  with  the  stones, 
the  first  two  islets  you  meet  as  you  row  up  the  lake  from  the 
river-side. 

A  narrow  skew  bridge,  starting  from  the  site  of  Mr. 
Whittaker's  house,  Stephen  Street,  and  terminating  in  Bridge- 
foot  Street,  behind  Mr.  Maveety's,  spanned  the  river  at  that 
time,  and  continued  there,  down  to  1846,  when  the  beautiful, 
commodious,  and  solid  Victoria  Bridge,  was  erected  by  Sir  John 
Benson  and  Mr.  St.  Leger,  the  late  County  Surveyor.  A  "bridge 
of  Sligo,"  is  mentioned  in  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  so  far 
back  as  the  year  1188,  the  structure,  of  course,  being  of  wood, 
like  all  the  bridges  of  the  period.  It  is  not  told,  when  a  stone 
bridge  took  the  place  of  the  wooden  one,  but  it  was  probably  in 
the  14th  century,  about  the  time  the  stone  and  mortar  bridge 
of  Ballysadare  was  built,  there  being  little  opportunity,  in  the 
troublous  times  that  preceded,  of  executing  such  a  work.  Cahal 
Og  O'Connor  was,  as  far  as  appears,  the  builder  of  the  Sligo 
bridge,  as  well  as  that  of  Ballysadare. 

There  seems  to  be  no  record  of  the  erection  of  the  bridge  at 
the  end  of  Thomas  Street.  It  did  not  exist  in  1642,  for,  other- 
wise, Sir  Frederick  Hamilton  would  have  passed  by  it  to  the 
Abbey,  instead  of  crossing  the  river  at  Buckley's  Ford  ;  nor  did 
it  exist  in  1673,  as  a  description  of  the  town,  published  that 
year,  speaks  only  of  one  bridge ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was 
built  before  1687,  the  date  of  the  partition  of  the  O'Connor 
Sligo  estate,  for,  in  the  Indenture  of  Partition,  a  lane,  running 
from  Stephen  Street  to  the  river,  is  called  "Newbridge  Lane." 
As  the  parties  to  the  Partition,  were  the  owners  of  the  town  at 
the  time,  it  was  probably  they  that  built  the  bridge.  In  any 


336  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


case  there  is  nothing  to  show,  that  the  Corporation  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  erection,  there  not  being  one  word  about  it  in 
their  records. 

If  the  "  Regulation  of  the  market,"  and  the  "peace  and  order  " 
of  the  town  involved  numerous  and  onerous  duties,  there  is  no 
great  trace  "of  them  in  the  Records.  The  Corporation  took 
action  once  or  twice — first,  in  1711,  and  again  in  1800 — in 
adjusting  the  weights  and  measures  of  turf,  hay,  and  straw.  In 
1732  the  Council  imposed  quarterage,  that  is,  a  tax  of  2s.  6d.  a 
quarter  on  all  Catholic  inhabitants  "exercising  trades,  art,  or 
mastery,  all  sellers,  or  persons  engaged  in  other  occupations," 
those  refusing  payment  to  have  their  shops  shut,  and  to  be 
debarred  from  trade  or  occupation  in  the  borough.  This  infamous 
exaction  resembled  that  wrung  from  the  Jews  in  some  countries 
for  leave  to  live  in  them.*  Later,  the  Council  took  in  hand  the 
meat  and  butter  markets";  more,  apparently,  in  the  interests  of 
their  own  members  than  in  that  of  the  community.  Provost 
Thomas  Soden,  having  erected  shambles,  in  1785,  at  the  lower 
end  of  Knox's  Street,  between  Quay  Street  and  the  Bridge,  the 
Council  ordered  that  all  meat  should  be  exposed  for  sale  there, 
and  there  only,  under  a  penalty  of  10s.  fine  for  every  carcass 
found  in  any  other  part  of  the  town.  Soden  was  empowered  to 
charge  for  every  carcass  of  beef  Is.  Id. ;  of  mutton  3d. ;  of 
veal  3d. ;  of  swine  3d. ;  of  lamb  2d. ;  and  of  kid  Id.  The 
butchers,  however,  who,  by  the  way,  have  always  approved  them- 
selves the  most  spirited  portion  of  the  population  of  Sligo, 
refused  to  comply  with  the  order ;  but  the  friendly  burgesses, 
in  order  to  get  their  good  brother  Soden  out  of  the  lurch,  and 
to  procure  him  some  return  for  his  expenditure,  commanded 
anew  the  butchers  to  make  use  of  the  place  provided  for  them, 
informing  them,  by  way  of  inducement  to  do  as  desired, 
that  there  would  be  no  charge  for  the  first  half  year,  from 
November,  1785,  to  May,  1786.  The  records  do  not  tell  how 
the  matter  ended. 

*  See  an  instructive  note  on  Quarterage  in  Wyse's  History  of  the  Catholic 
Association.    Vol.  I.,  p.  85. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  337 


James  Soden,  like  Thomas,  wished  to  turn  a  penny  on  the 
markets.  Leaving  the  butchers  to  his  brother,  James  took  the 
sellers  of  butter  under  his  own  wing,  and  provided,  in  1787,  a 
market  for  their  accommodation  near  the  shambles  at  the  north 
end  of  Knox's  Street.  Of  course  the  Council  backed  him, 
appointing  him  "public  weighmaster  of  butter,"  with  power  to 
have  a  deputy,  accountable  to  him  for  all  moneys  received.  The 
issue  of  this  job  is  not  stated. 

The  burgesses,  then,  were  always  ready  to  help  themselves 
and  their  friends,  laying  the  burdens  of  the  borough  on  others, 
and  keeping  the  benefits  to  themselves,  monopolizing  its  offices, 
emoluments,  and  other  good  things.  The  leases  of  the  town 
parks  having  fallen  in,  the  Council  gave  them  to  its  favourites, 
William  Vernon,  William  Boyd,  James  Boyd,  and  Robert 
Clarke,  glazier ;  this  Robert  Clarke,  glazier,  not  being  a  very 
reputable  person,  as  a  corporation  minute,  of  1761,  directs  that 
a  "  ball  yard,  kept  in  Stephen  Street  by  Robert  Clarke,  glazier, 
be  removed  as  a  nuisance." 

All  this  time  Catholics  were  the  helots  of  Sligo.  Not  only 
were  they  excluded  from  the  Town  Council  and  from  the 
lands,  of  which  the  Town  Council  had  the  disposal,  but  a 
Catholic  could  not  be  a  freeman  of  the  corporation,  an  appren- 
tice of  the  borough,  or  even  a  scavenger  of  the  streets.  What- 
ever else  people  were,  or  wherever  they  came  from,  the  freedom 
or  apprenticeship  of  the  town  was  within  their  reach,  provided 
only  they  abjured  the  Pope,  and  conformed  to  the  Church  of 
Ireland,  as  by  law  established.  A  minute  of  November  27, 
171 G,  informs  us  that  "  Bryan  Kelly,  chandler  and  soap  boiler, 
is  promoted  to  be  a  Freeman  of  the  Corporation,  having  taken 
the  oath  of  ffreeman,  and,  by  his  certificate,  having  taken  the 
oaths  of  abjuration  and  allegiance  under  the  Mayor's  hand  and 
seal  of  the  City  of  Londonderry;"  and  a  minute  of  the 
12th  May,  1716,  states,  "  This  day  Edward  Scanlan  received 
his  indenture  and  his  discharge  thereon  from  his  master, 
James  Farrell  of  Sligo,  Apothecary,  bearing  date  1st  March, 
1708,  having  served  his  time,  honestly,  for  seven  years,  and, 
VOL.  I.  Y 


338  HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


likewise,  is  a  Protestant  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  as  by  law 
established." 

The  Council  showed  its  orthodoxy,  not  only  by  insisting  that 
its  members  should  belong  to  the  established  church,  which,  of 
course,  was  only  in  conformity  with  the  law,  but  also  by  selecting 
many  of  them  from  the  clergymen  of  that  church.  Among  the 
burgesses  whose  names  are  recorded,  we  find  Rev.  George 
Ormsby,  Rev.  Eubule  Ormsby,  the  Bishop  of  Meath,  Rev. 
Stephen  Radcliffe,  Dean  Maxwell,  Rev.  Thomas  Cuffe,  Rev.  W. 
C.  Armstrong,  Rev.  John  Yeates,  Rev.  Richard  Wynne,  Rev.  B. 
Eyres,  Rev.  Henry  Wynne,  Rev.  W.  Willoughby  Wynne,  and 
Rev.  C.  Hamilton.  Several  of  these  clergymen  served  as  Pro- 
vosts. To  another  parson,  the  Rev.  Doctor  William  Henery, 
the  Council  presented  the  freedom  of  the  borough  in  a  silver 
box ;  the  silver  box  being  a  special,  and  so  far  as  appears,  a 
unique  compliment  on  the  part  of  the  civic  fathers.  The 
record  adds,  that  the  favour  was  conferred  on  Dr.  Henery 
"  for  his  attachment  and  good  service  to  the  Corporation/'  but 
does  not  specify  the  exact  nature  of  the  "  good  service,"  which, 
probably,  there  was  no  desire  to  make  known  to  the  public. 

The  only  person  that  has  received  the  freedom  of  the  borough 
under  the  Reformed  Corporation,  is  Mr.  Sexton,  the  member 
for  West  Belfast.  The  honour  was  voted  to  Mr.  Edmund  Dwyer 
Gray  also,  but,  owing  to  that  gentleman  not  signing  the  record, 
the  legal  act  was  not  perfected,  and  the  nomination  fell  through. 
It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  Corporation  that  the  freedom  of  the 
borough  was  conferred  on  Mr.  Sexton  unanimously.  Unlike  the 
Rev.  Dr.  William  Henery,  Mr.  Sexton  had  claims,  both  of  a 
public  and  private  nature,  to  the  distinction,  which  everyone 
recognised.  The  high  place  he  occupied  in  the  country  as  a 
public  man,  his  brilliant  eloquence,  and  the  important  services 
he  rendered  to  the  town  and  harbour,  entitled  him  to  any  com- 
pliment the  Corporation  had  it  in  its  power  to  bestow.  Still  it 
was  pleasant  to  find  the  Conservatives  recognising  his  merits  as 
freely  as  the  Liberals,  and  joining  as  heartily  in  honouring  him. 
It  was  on  the  28th  of  October,  1885,  the  freedom  was  conferred; 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  339 


and  the  following  is  the  minute  of  the  proceedings,  as  it  appears 
on  the  minute  book  of  the  Council : — 

"  Resolved  :  that  the  freedom  of  our  ancient  Borough  be  con- 
ferred on  Thomas  Sexton,  Esq.,  M.P.,  pursuant  to  the  provisions 
of  the  Municipal  Privileges  (Ireland)  Act,  1876,  that  on  and 
from  this  date  his  name  be  enrolled  as  Honorary  Burgess  of 
Sligo,  as  a  mark  of  respect  from  this  Council,  and  appreciation 
of  his  valuable  services  in  the  interests  of  our  Town  and  Harbour 
since  entering  Parliament. 

"  That  the  following  certificate  be  engrossed  and  signed  by 
the  Mayor  and  Town  Clerk,  and  the  Corporate  Seal  affixed 
thereto : — '  This  is  to  certify  that,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Town 
Council  held  on  the  28th  day  of  October,  1885,  Thomas  Sexton, 
Esq.,  M.P.,  was  elected  an  Honorary  Burgess  of  the  Borough  of 
Sligo/ 

"  [Passed  unanimously.] 

"JAMES  NELSON,  Mayor; 

"DANIEL  MAcGILL,  Town  Clerk 
"  Moved  by  EDWARD  TIGHE,  Alderman  ; 
"  Seconded  by  ROBERT  CRAWFORD,  T.C." 

The  Council  of  the  old  unreformed  Corporation  held  its  last 
meeting  on  the  29th  of  September,  1842 ;  and  it  would  appear 
from  the  subjoined  minute,  the  only  one  entered,  that  the  sole 
object,  for  which  the  meeting  was  convened,  was  to  secure  the 
offices  of  Town  Clerk  and  Sergeant-at-mace  for  the  persons 
named : — 

"  Borough  of  Sligo  ^        "  We,  the  Provost  and  Free  Burgesses 

/of  said  borough,  being  duly  assembled 
at  the  Town  Office,  within  the  said 

borough,  Do  unanimously  elect  and  continue  William  Allen  to 
be  Town  Clerk,  and  Robert  Carey  and  Richard  Merrick  to  be 
continued  Sergeants-at-mace  in  and  for  said  borough, 


340  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


"Given  under  our  hands  and  seal  of  the  Corporation,  this  29th 
day  of  September,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-two. 

W.  FAUSSET,  Provost. 

JOHN  WYNNE. 

CHA.  HAMILTON. 

H.  H.  SLADE. 

WM.  W1LLOUGHBY  WYNNE. 

R  B.  WYNNE. 

HENRY  FAUSSETT." 

"  Le  Toi  est  mart ;  vive  le  roi ;  "  and  the  Council  of  the  old 
Corporation  having  retired  from  the  scene,  the  Council  of  the 
Reformed  Corporation  lost  no  time  in  making  its  bow.  The 
first  meeting  of  the  new  body  was  held  on  the  1st  November, 
1842,  when  the  following  Aldermen  and  Town  Councillors 
attended  :  Aldermen  Andrew  Walker,  Henry  O'Connor,  Michael 
Gallagher,  and  Robert  Sherlock;  Town  Councillors  Edward 
Kelly,  Michael  Gethin,  James  Boyle,  Michael  Gaffney,  Martin 
Cogan,  Roger  Robinson,  Jeremiah  O'Donovan,  James  McLear, 
E.  H.  Verdon,  William  Fausset,  James  Beatty,  James  Madden, 
Henry  Maudesley,  Dominick  Henry,  Follis  Clarke,  Martin 
Madden,  John  Killilea,  and  James  Townsend. 

Alderman  Walker  having  been  called  to  the  chair,  it  was 
moved  by  Alderman  O'Connor,  seconded  by  Alderman  Sherlock, 
and  resolved  unanimously  : — 

"That  Martin  Madden,  Esq.,  be  elected  Mayor  for  the 
Borough  of  Sligo  for  the  ensuing  year."  With,  the  exception  of 
naming  law  officers,  this  was  the  only  business  transacted  at  the 
first  meeting  of  the  new  Council. 

Narrow  and  dirty  as  the  streets  of  Sligo  were  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  the  markets  were  held  in  them  to  a  much 
greater  extent  than  in  the  spacious  streets  of  the  present  day. 
Then,  as  now,  Saturday  and  Tuesday  were  the  two  market  days  : 
Saturday's  market  day  being  held  in  virtue  of  a  grant  made  by 
James  I,  in  1604,  to  Sir  James  Fullerton  "  to  hold  a  Saturday 
market  and  two  fairs  on  24th  June  and  29th  September, 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  341 


to  continue  for  \ those  days  only;"  and  the  market  on  Tues- 
day in  virtue  of  a  patent  granted  in  1627  by  Charles  L;  to 
Sir  James  Craig,  Knight,  "  to  hold  a  Tuesday  market  and  two 
fairs  on  17th  March  and  1st  August,  and  the  day  after  each,  at 
the  Bishop  O'Crean's  Cross,  alias  Laghtenaspicke,  in  the  town 
ofSligo." 

Saturday's  market  was  the  chief  one  in  those  times,  as  well  as  at 
present,  but  everything  else  was  different.  The  streams  of  people 
that  rolled  down  Gallows  Hill  North  and  Gallows  Hill  South — the 
two  principal  approaches — bore  little  resemblance  to  the  crowds 
which  now  flock  in  on  Saturdays  by  the  Albert  and  the  Victoria 
Road.  Instead  of  the  carts  and  other  vehicles  which  create,  nowa- 
days, such  movement,  horses  and  asses,  laden  with  sacks  or  pan- 
niers, ambled  along.  There  being  no  footpaths  or  sidewalks,  the 
people  moved  through  the  high-road  in  the  same  line  with  the 
horses  and  asses,  and,  like  them,  often  carried  loads  of  commodi- 
ties to  be  disposed  of  in  the  market,  such  as  flannels,  drugget, 
linen,  and  yarn,  though  not  the  baskets  of  eggs  and  butter  which 
one  sees  now  so  commonly  in  women's  hands,  as  it  was  then 
counted  a  disgrace  to  sell  either  of  these  articles.  So  much  did 
this  silly  shame  prevail,  that  when  small  farmers  or  cotters 
began,  through  time,  to  take  their  butter  to  Sligo,  they  made  it 
a  point  to  remove  it,  privately,  by  night,  in  order  not  to  leave  it 
in  the  neighbours'  power  to  upbraid  them  with  the  "  meanness  " 
at  the  next  falling  out. 

The  style  of  dress,  for  both  men  and  women,  was  rather 
homely  at  the  time.  No  one  then  dreamed  of  Chesterfields  or 
Ulsters,  flowing  pantaloons  or  elastic  boots,  silk  ties  or  non- 
descript hats.  A  blue  frieze  body-coat,  corduroy  small  clothes, 
long  stockings,  a  felt  hat,  "  clouted  brogues,"  and  a  shirt  wide 
open  round  the  chest  and  neck,  formed  the  general  outfit  of 
men ;  and  if  some  few  had,  in  addition,  a  frieze  overcoat,  or 
coathamore,  coming  down  to  the  feet,  and  worn  both  in  summer 
and  winter,  there  were  others,  particularly  from  the  sea-side, 
who  trudged  to  town  in  coarse,  white  flannel  vests,  without  coat 
or  overcoat,  as  well  as  without  shoes  and  stockings,  hat  or  cap  : 


342  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


footless  stockings,  called  "  martyeens,"  often  doing  duty  for  coat- 
sleeves.* 

Females  knew  little  then  of  the  finery  which  makes  it  hard,  at 
present,  to  distinguish  mistress  from  maid.  A  kind  of  Spencer 
of  home-made  coarse  cloth,  falling,  about  the  knee,  over  a  skirt 
of  drugget,  was  the  general  costume.  A  considerable  number 
of  the  younger  girls  went  without  shoes  or  stockings ;  others 
carried  those  articles  in  their  hands  till  they  came  near  the 
town,  when  they  put  them  on  ;  and  most  of  the  middle-aged 
and  elderly  females  wore  caps  as  well  as  cloaks  with  hoods, 
which  they  turned  over  the  head  when  rain  came  on.  In  the 
upper  part  of  the  county,  as  in  the  whole  of  the  county  Mayo,  red 
or  saffron  was  the  common  colour  in  skirts  and  cloaks  ;  but  this 
was  voted  vulgar  around  Sligo,  and  blue  tints  were  the  fashion. 
Everything  worn  by  either  men  or  women  was  of  domestic 
manufacture. 

Most  of  the  marketing  came  off  in  the  streets,  and 
comparatively  little  in  the  shops,  more  especially  during 
the  Christmas  markets,  which  were  supposed  to  last  from. 
October  to  Easter.  As  it  was  at  this  time  country  people 
made  the  bulk  of  their  purchases,  tradesmen  and  other  pro- 
ducers employed  themselves  for  the  month  or  two  before 
Christmas,  in  providing  their  respective  specialities  for  the 
season.  To  set  the  workers  early  to  their  task,  a  knot  of 
boys  called,  popularly,  "  Waits  "  moved  in  the  month  of  Decem- 
ber, every  morning,  long  before  day,  through  the  town,  accom- 
panied by  a  fiddler  or  two,  and  stopping  in  the  chief  business 
quarters,  and  directing  the  fiddler  to  ply  the  bow,  woke  up 
the  sleepers.  All  this  was  taken  in  good  part,  and  regarded 
as  a  valuable  service,  which  it  certainly  was,  at  a  time  when 
there  was  no  clock  in  the  town  to  strike  the  time,  so  that 
any  friend  of  industry  that  went  round  the  streets  an  hour 
or  two  before  day,  could  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  good  effect, 

*  John  Hiil  Burton,  in  his  "History  of  Scotland  from  the  Revolution  to  the 
extinction  of  the  last  Jacobite  Insurrection  "  (Vol.  II.,  p.  378,)  speaks  of  the 
dress  of  the  lower  classes  of  Ireland  as  the  "Concrete  of  glutinous  rags  now- 
forming  the  national  costume  of  the  Irish  peasant." 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  343 


when  he  heard  the  notes  of  labour  sounded  on  all  sides  by 
the  shuttle  of  the  weaver  and  the  hosier,  the  lathe  of  the 
turner,  and  the  rhythmic  strokes  of  the  blacksmith's  hammer, 
As  a  matter  of  course,  the  "Waits"  received  a  handsome 
gratuity  on  Christmas  Day  for  their  pains. 

The  goods,  thus  produced,  were  exhibited  on  standings,  that 
lined  the  streets,  during  the  Christmas  markets.  Each  kind  of 
goods  had  its  own  quarter.  Frieze,  flannel,  and  drugget  were 
exposed  for  sale,  on  the  west  side  of  the  top  of  High  Street ; 
wooden  dishes,  trenchers,  noggins,  "pygins,"  loy  shafts,  and 
other  products  of  the  turner's  and  the  cooper's  trade  came  next 
in  line;  shoes  and  brogues  of  all  sizes  and  qualities  followed ; 
felt  hats,  manufactured,  for  the  most  part,  in  Hatters'  Lane,  now 
Waste  Garden  Lane,  succeeded ;  articles  of  coarse  pottery  were 
ranged  towards  the  bottom  of  Market  Street;  and  lower  down> 
usually  stood  several  women,  each  behind  a  firkin  of  butter, 
and  each  tempting  buyers,  by  proclaiming  her  own  butter  the 
finest  in  the  market.  In  the  proper  season,  hogsheads  of  flax 
seed  were  ranged  along  the  head  of  High  Street ;  from  a  little 
before  Christmas  to  Easter  Sunday,  tables  on  either  side  of 
Knox's  Street,  were  covered  with  pork  and  beef;  while  in 
Pound  Street,  sally  rods  for  scollops,  and  rushes  for  lights,  were 
offered  for  sale,  both  articles  being  naturally  in  great  demand 
at  a  time,  when  nearly  all  the  houses  of  Sligo  were  thatched, 
and  when  rush  candles  were  in  common  use.  The  hosier,  the 
tailor,  and  the  pedlar,  generally  dispensed  with  standings,  and 
hawked  their  respective  commodities  through  the  crowded 
streets ;  the  hosier  his  stockings,  the  tailor  ready-made  waist- 
coats, and  the  pedlar,  pins,  needles,  brass  buttons,  and  knick- 
knacks. 

While  most  of  the  market  people  returned  home  in  due  time, 
some  few,  instead  of  accompanying  their  neighbours,  turned 
into  the  whiskey  houses,  of  which  the  town  was  full,  every 
second  or  third  house  being  a  shebeen.  In  several  of  these 
resorts,  and  particularly  in  those  near  the  quays,  the  attraction 
of  music  and  dancing  was  added  to  the  attraction  of  strong 


344  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


liquors,  and  the  carouse  was  sometimes  kept  up  all  night,  with, 
unfortunately,  the  result,  that  an  occasional  straggler  might  be 
seen  on  Sunday  morning,  when  the  sheheen  was  closed,  making 
for  his  home  in  the  country,  in  much  the  same  frame  of  mind, 
as  the  notorious  Joe  Adley,  who  never  returned  from  the  fair  of 
Collooney,  which  he  punctually  attended,  till  the  day  after  the 
fair,  and  who,  if  any  one  met  him  on  such  occasions,  and  asked, 
"  Joe,  is  it  now  you  are  leaving  the  fair  ? "  always  replied,  "  Tut, 
man,  it  was  not  Joe  left  the  fair,  it  was  the  fair  left  Joe." 
Convivialities  were  then  carried  much  farther  in  the  town  of 
Sligo,  than  at  present,  and,  as  far  as  persons  of  the  well-to-do 
class  were  concerned,  came  off,  for  the  most  part,  in  licensed 
houses  of  some  kind ;  in  inns,  taverns,  "  holes  in  the  wall,"  as 
some  drinking  places  were  called,  and  oyster  saloons,  one  of 
which  stood  at  the  east  end  of  the  Old  Bridge,  another  at  the 
west,  and  a  third,  in  Holborn  Street ;  this  last  being  kept  by  a 
Mrs.  Bell,  who  managed  to  puff  her  commodities  in  the  still 
well  remembered  couplet : — 

"  If  you  want  Oysters,  fresh  and  sweet, 
Come  to  Molly  Bell's  of  Holborn  Street." 

In  spite  of  this  state  of  things,  more  than  one  laudator 
temporis  acti  avers,  that  there  was  little  or  no  drunkenness  or 
quarrelling  among  the  lower  classes  in  those  days,  an  assertion 
— at  least  as  far  as  drunkenness  is  concerned — which  it  is  hard 
to  credit,  considering  the  cheapness  of  poteen  at  the  time,  and 
the  frailty  of  our  countrymen.  The  statement,  however,  that 
there  was  less  quarrelling,  seems  better  founded.  From  what 
has  been  handed  down  by  persons  who  lived  in  those  times,  it 
may  be  inferred,  that  neighbours  were  more  united  then  than 
now.  One  great  cause  of  altercation,  sectarian  feeling,  was,  it  is 
said,  then  unknown;  and  we  are  told,  that  Protestants  and 
Catholics  of  the  lower  classes,  met  together  in  places  of  amuse- 
ment and  enjoyment,  and  passed  the  time  as  friends  and 
brothers,  without  any  of  those  bickerings  on  the  score  of  religion 
or  politics,  which  would  be  pretty  sure  to  arise  in  such  com- 
panies nowadays. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  345 


The  friendly  feelings  subsisting  between  Catholics  and  Pro- 
testants, may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that,  at  the  building  of  the 
Catholic  Chapel  of  Sligo,  in  the  beginning  of  the  century,  not 
only  did  individual  Protestants  contribute  generally  and  liberally 
in  aid  of  the  erection,  but  the  Select  Vestry  of  the  parish  of  St. 
John's  voted  a  considerable  sum  towards  the  completion  of  the 
work  (Sligo  Journal,  January  9th,  1819).  This  was  the  more 
remarkable,  as,  at  that  time  controversies  waxed  warm  between 
the  different  denominations  of  Nonconformists  in  the  towns — 
the  Independents  and  Presbyterians  championing  their  views  on 
Election  and  Predestination,  and  the  Methodists  standing  up 
for  the  tenet  of  Universal  Redemption. 

Having  referred  to  the  old  chapel,  one  may  take  occasion  to 
add,  that  in  its  day,  it  was  regarded  as  a  particularly  imposing, 
and,  what  it  certainly  was,  a  very  commodious  structure.  An 
altar-piece  which  it  contained,  and  for  which  the  painter — one 
of  the  ODonnells  of  Larkfield — received  £50,  was  held  by  local 
aesthetes  to  be  little,  if  at  all  inferior,  as  a  work  of  art,  to  the 
chef  d'ceuvres  of  Raphael  and  Michael  Angel o.  This  house 
stood  on  a  plot  of  ground,  granted  by  a  gentleman,  named 
Le  Grand,  and  on  the  site  of  a  still  older  chapel,  round  which  it 
was  built  up,  and  within  which  the  congregation  continued  to 
assemble,  till  the  new  house  was  roofed  in  and  completed,  when 
only  it  was  taken  down. 

A  great  change  came  over  people's  feelings  and  habits,  between 
1820  and  1830,  in  consequence  of  the  agitation  which  preceded 
and  accompanied  the  Emancipation  Act  of  1829.  The  con- 
troversies and  discussions  then  so  rife  on  religious  subjects, 
tended  to  separate  Catholics  and  Protestants  into  hostile  parties  ; 
and,  unfortunately,  persons  who  should  have  tried  to  soften 
matters,  and  hinder  divisions,  exerted  themselves  only  to  widen 
the  breach.  On  the  passing  of  the  Emancipation  Act,  a 
Reverend  firebrand  of  the  name  of  Seymour,  taking  on  himself 
the  role  of  missionary  of  mischief,  came  from  the  county  Mayo 
to  Sligo,  and  in  public  as  well  as  in  private,  preached  to  the 
gentry  of  the  county  the  necessity  of  keeping  Catholics  at  an 


346  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


arm's  length,  and  giving  them  neither  land  nor  employment ;  an 
advice  which  was  then  largely  taken,  and  has  been  since  acted  on 
pretty  systematically  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  Up 
to  that  time  Catholics  served  as  domestics  in  the  houses  of  the 
gentry  ;  and  as  stewards,  game-keepers,  gate-keepers  in  their 
demesnes  ;  but  they  were  then  got  rid  of,  and  thenceforward  few 
of  our  county  families  admitted  them  to  any  employment,  indoor 
or  outdoor,  except  that  of  labourer,  and  few  of  our  county 
landlords  let  them  lands,  except  bits  of  bog  or  mountain,  such 
as  his  own  co-religionists  would  not  accept.  In  acting  on  the 
advice  of  such  fanatics  or  charletans  as  Seymour,  the  short- 
sighted gentry  fancied  they  were  securing  for  themselves,  and 
their  sect,  for  all  time,  a  monopoly  of  all  the  good  things  in  the 
country ;  but,  instead  of  that,  they  find  now  they  were  only 
depositing,  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  public,  the  explosives 
of  discontent,  resentment,  and  longings  for  revenge ;  feelings 
which,  when  called  into  play,  make  as  sad  work  of  moral 
interests  and  institutions,  as  dynamite  makes  of  material  build- 
ings. 

It  is  only  fair  to  add,  that  the  fault  was  not  altogether  on  one 
side.  If  there  was  action,  there  was  also  reaction  and  counter- 
action. When  the  cultivated  and  benevolent  Dr.  Petrie  visited 
the  county,  in  1837,  he  was  shocked  by  the  divisions  and  quarrels 
he  found  among  the  inhabitants.  In  those  days,  the  Petty 
Sessions  Courts  of  the  district  were  occupied  mainly  with  those 
disorders ;  as,  at  Ballymote,  where  the  Reverend  Bernard  Egan, 
C.C.,  had  one  case  against  Lewis  and  Eobert  Clarke,  for  dis- 
charging fire  arms  at  him,  and  another  against  Dr.  Lougheed 
and  his  apprentice,  Charles  Denning — the  late  Dr.  Denning  of 
Sligo — while  in  both  instances,  the  parties  concerned  had  cross 
cases  against  the  priest. 

Poor  Petrie,  while  admiring  the  fine  qualities,  intellectual 
and  moral,  of  the  Sligo  people,  was  so  provoked  by  those 
miserable  squabbles,  that,  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Larcom,  he 
describes  them  in  the  following  rather  queer  sounding  words, 
which  would  be  omitted  here,  only  that  they  may  help  us  all  to 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  347 


see  ourselves  as  others  see  us : — "  They  are  all  a  civil,  intelligent, 
and  obliging  people,  but  the  demon  of  religious  and  political 
discord  is  playing  the  devil  among  them ;  the  gentry  and  par- 
sons are  precious  bigots  on  the  one  side,  the  priests  and  people 
on  the  other,  and  it  is  appalling  to  a  benevolent  and  philo- 
sophical mind,  '  to  look  forward  to  the  probable/  if  not  certain 
result  of  such  a  state  of  things." 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

THE  HARBOUR  OF   SLIGO. 

SLIGO  BAY  is  bounded,  seaward,  by  a  ledge  of  rock,  stretching 
from  Aughriss  Head,  in  the  barony  of  Tireragh  to  Roskeeragh 
point,  at  Knocklane,  in  the  barony  of  Carbury,  and  proceeds 
eastward,  in  three  separate  inlets — one  ending  at  Drumcliffe, 
another  at  Victoria  Bridge,  Sligo,  and  the  third  at  the  waterfall 
of  Ballysadare.  From  observation  of  the  coast,  and  more 
especially  of  Rosses  Point,  where  the  sea  is  visibly  encroaching 
on  the  land,  it  appears  that  the  water  of  the  bay  is  deepening 
with  time,  Sligo  being,  in  this  respect,  unlike  some  English 
and  Continental  places,  which  have  been  deserted  by  the  sea : 
as  Winchelsea  in  Sussex,  once  a  fine  port,  and  Adria,  at  the 
delta  of  the  Po,  in  former  times  so  famous  a  harbour,  that  it 
gave  name  to  the  Adriatic  Sea,  but  now,  left  by  the  sea  high 
and  dry,  fourteen  miles  inland. 

There  is  reason  to  think,  that  in  remote  times,  the  Bally- 
sadare inlet  was  more  frequented  by  mariners  than  that  of 
Sligo.  Tradition  represents  Sligo  as  coming  into  note  after 
Ballysadare  ;  and  in  an  old  and  curious  account  of  the  conflict 
between  the  Fomorians  and  Tuatha  de  Danaans,  we  are  told 
that  nine  Fomorians,  having  been  spared  from  the  general 
massacre,  and  allowed  to  go  back  to  their  own  people,  they 
proceeded  to  Eas  Dara,  and  embarked  there,  which  they  would 
hardly  have  done,  had  Sligo  been  then  the  chief  port  of  the 
district. 

But  however  things  may  have  been  in  the  *  pre-historic 
ages,"  Sligo  has  been,  in  more  modern  times,  and  particularly 
since  the  rise  of  the  town,  an  incomparably  more  important 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  349 


harbour  than  Ballysadare.  Hollinshead  counts  Sligo  one  of 
the  chief  towns  in  Connaught,  and  "  its  port,  one  of  the  chief 
havens  there  ;"  and  a  weighty  State  paper,  of  the  year  1553, 
says  of  it,  "The  same  Sliyggaghe,  is  the  King's  Majesty's,  and 
it  is  the  best  haven  town  in  all  the  country."  In  official  docu- 
ments it  is  classed  with  Galway.  For  instance,  we  read  in  a 
Close  Roll,  of  the  2nd  year  of  Henry  VI, "  It  was  agreed  by 
James,  Count  of  Ormond,  that  William  De  Burgo,  Knight,  and 
his  brother,  William  de  Burgo,  should  have  payment  for  their 
services  in  the  Irish  wars,  out  of  the  Customs  of  the  ports  of 
Sligo  and  Galway."  Once  connected  with  the  port,  the  De 
Burgos  were  slow  to  relinquish  claims  upon  its  revenues.  In 
1544,  Lord  Fitzwilliam  Bourke,  petitioned  Sir  Anthony  Sent- 
leger,  and  the  Council,  "to  have  in  fee-farm  the  cockets  of 
Sligo,  Porterade  (Portavade)  and  Leighborne,  with  all  other 
creeks  and  havens,  which  his  ancestors  have  had,  and  whereof, 
the  King  has  never  had  profit,  as  they  are  kept  from  His  High- 
ness by  usurpation  ; "  and  in  1606,  an  inquisition  held  at  Sligo, 
by  Jeoffry  Osbaldston,  William  May,  and  Nicholas  Brady,  to 
inquire  into  the  possessions  of  the  Earl  of  Clanrickarde,  finds, 
that  "  anciently  the  Earls  of  Clanrickarde  held  and  enjoyed  the 
cocquetts  of  Sligo  and  Portavade,  in  the  said  county ." 

Lord  Fitzwilliam  Bourke's  remark  about  "  usurpation,"  refers 
to  O'Donnell  and  O'Connor,  Sligo,  though  Manus  O'Donnell, 
about  this  time,  made  over  to  Henry  VIII.,  a  moiety  of  the 
cockets  of  Sligo,  in  the  following  terms:— "I,  Magonius 
O'Donnell,  captain  of  my  nation,  do  give  and  grant  to  my  King 
(in  order  that  he  shall  be  my  protector),  the  moiety  of  the 
tribute  due  to  me,  in  Ichdarconnachd  (Lower  Connaught).  I 
also  grant  to  him,  the  moiety  of  the  cocket  of  all  ships  coming 
to  Sligaghe  to  trade,  from  which  I  have  had  cocket ;  so  that  the 
King's  bailiff  or  servant,  called  a  marshal,  accompanied  by  my 
bailiff,  shall  in  like  manner  exact  the  tribute.  ...  If  a 
multitude  of  herrings  and  other  fish,  called  '  garbushe,'  should 
resort  to  the  country  of  Lord  O'Donnell,  or  to  his  sea,  such  as 
now  comes  into  Arayn  or  Ynisnycadryn,  one-half  thereof  shall 


350  HISTORY    OF   SLTGO. 


belong  to  the  King,  and  the  other  to  O'Donell."  That  O'Connor 
Sligo  was  also  a  party  to  the  "  usurpation,"  appears  from  the 
State  paper  of  1553,  which  adds  to  the  extract,  given  above,  the 
words,  "  And  the  same  O'Connor,  and  certain  his  predecessors, 
keepeth  the  same  by  usurpation."  Both  the  O'Donnells  and 
the  O'Connors  lost  the  fishing  in  the  beginning  of  the  17th 
century,  as  we  find  it  in  1606,  leased  by  the  King  to  Sir  Henry 
Folliott. 

There  was  constant  intercourse  in  these  times  between  Sligo 
and  the  Continent,  and  particularly  between  Sligo  and  Spain. 
Spanish  fishermen  frequented  the  coast,  and  Spanish  ships 
visited  the  harbour.  In  1534,  Lord  Offaly  sent  his  father,  the 
Earl  of  Kildare's  treasures,  to  Sligo,  to  be  conveyed  thence  in  a 
Spanish  vessel  to  Spain;  in  1599,  Hugh  Roe  O'Donnell  de- 
spatched Reverend  John  He  win  from  Sligo,  with  divers  letters 
to  Spain  ;  in  1588,  three  ships  of  the  Armada  were  lost  in  Sligo 
waters;  in  1601,  Sir  George  Carew  wrote  from  Cork,  to  inform 
the  Privy  Council  of  a  Spanish  ship,  which  had  put  to  sea, 
after  having  lain  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  port  of  Sligo ; 
and  in  various  invasions  of  Ireland,  contemplated  by  Spanish 
statesmen,  Sligo  was  always  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  suitable 
places  for  disembarkation.  The  Irish  of  the  United  States 
seem  to  count  our  harbour  the  fittest  place  for  a  landing 
in  case  of  hostile  invasion  from  that  country,  and  accordingly, 
the  Fenians,  in  1867,  ran  the  Jacknal  into  Sligo  Bay. 

It  was  only  under  an  Act  of  Parliament,  passed  in  1729,  the 
improvement  of  the  channel  began.*  The  Provost,  Burgesses 
and  Freemen,  in  virtue  of  the  powers  conferred  by  this  Act, 
erected  a  Ballast  Office  in  the  Port  of  Sligo,  and  appointed  Mr. 
Laurence  Yernon,  Ballast  Master,  an  office  which  he  held  till 
his  death,  in  1754,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Mr. 
William  Vernon,  who  died  in  1759,  and  was  followed  in  office 


*  An  Act  for  cleansing  the  ports,  harbours,  and  rivers,  of  the  city  of  Cork, 
und  of  the  towns  of  Galway,  Sligoe,  Drogheda,  and  Belfast,  and  for  erecting  a 
Ballast  Office  in  the  said  city,  and  each  of  the  said  towns. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  351 


by  Mr.  Charles  Martin.  In  1765,  on  a  petition  from  the 
Corporation,  a  grant  was  made  by  Parliament  for  the  erection 
of  a  pier  at  Oyster  Island,  and  with  this  money  a  substantial 
pier,  160  feet  long,  was  erected  on  the  side  of  the  island  facing 
Rosses  Point;  but  having  been  injured  by  a  storm,  and  never 
repaired  or  cared  for,  it  broke  up  and  disappeared,  hardly  a 
stone  remaining  now  in  situ.  It  is  hard  to  understand  why 
this  pier  was  constructed  on  the  island  instead  of  Rosses  Point 
shore. 

The  quay  of  Sligo  was  formed  piecemeal,  the  narrow  strip 
adjoining  the  old  Custom  House,  coming  first,  having  been  con- 
structed by  the  public  authorities  at  the  time  they  erected  the 
Custom  House  and  the  Queen's  Stores.  The  portion  called 
Martin's  Quay,  owes  its  name  to  its  builder,  Mr.  Charles  Martin, 
and  is  still  private  property.  The  adjoining  stretch  was  the 
work  of  Mr.  James  Cochrane,  who  built  it  on  the  site  of  a 
disused  salt  pan  for  the  accommodation  of  his  large  store.  Main- 
taining the  quay  to  be  his  personal  property,  he  charged  dues, 
while  he  held  it,  on  such  vessels  as  moored  there,  and,  on 
transferring  it  to  the  Harbour  Commissioners,  received  com- 
pensation for  the  income  thus  parted  with. 

The  Ballast  Quay,  so  called  from  its  facing  the  old  ballast 
bank,  is  a  later  erection,  and  has  been  extended,  from  time  to 
time,  to  such  a  length,  that  the  whole  structure  is  about  two 
thousand  feet  long.  From  this  quay  proceeds  a  new  pier,  half 
a  statute  mile  long,  at  which  the  Harbour  Board  of  Sligo  is 
constructing  deep  berths,  capable  of  accommodating  the  largest 
vessels  afloat.  The  berths,  when  finished,  will  be,  at  least,  six- 
teen feet  deep  under  low  water  mark.  Though  the  works  are 
at  present  suspended,  for  want  of  funds,  a  great  deal  is  already 
done ;  for,  of  the  eight  hundred  feet  taken  in  hand,  at  first,  by 
the  engineer,  as  a  commencement,  four  hundred,  it  is  said,  is 
already  excavated  to  the  proper  depth.  The  pier  is  solidly 
built,  as  it  needs  to  be,  to  resist  the  disturbing  action  of  the 
waves,  which  rush  in  with  great  force  at  this  point  in  stormy 
and  unsettled  weather.  Till  the  work  is  completed  the  masonry 


352  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


must  be  protected,  and,  if  any  damage  be  sustained,  repaired, 
that  it  may  not  fare,  in  any  measure,  like  Oyster  Island  pier, 
which,  as  has  been  said,  owing  first,  to  want  of  care  in  protect- 
ing it,  and,  secondly,  to  want  of  repair,  after  having  been 
injured,  mouldered  away,  and  has  disappeared.  It  appears  that 
about  £20,000  was  expended  in  1883  and  1884  at  the  Ballast 
Quay,  which,  though  a  large  sum,  is  not  excessive,  in  view  of 
the  amount  of  work  executed.  But  it  is  of  great  importance 
that  the  work  should  be  resumed  with  the  least  possible  delay, 
for,  on  the  principle  of  "  a  stitch  in  time,"  a  moderate  sum,  at 
present,  would  effect,  what,  in  the  future,  would  require  a  much 
larger  outlay. 

The  pier,  if  finished,  would  afford  one  of  the  healthiest  and 
finest  promenades  in  the  kingdom.  In  respect  of  sea  air  a  stroll 
upon  it  would  be  attended  with  all  the  advantages  which  have 
made  the  pier  of  Kingstown  so  frequented  and  fashionable. 
And,  as  to  scenery,  Kingstown  would  suffer  in  the  comparison ; 
for  the  Hill  of  Howth  and  the  mountains  of  Wicklow,  the  chief 
scenic  beauties  in  view  from  it,  could  not  compete  for  a  moment 
either  in  outline,  in  colour,  or  in  historic  and  legendary  associa- 
tions, with  the  symmetrical  Knocknarea,  the  stately  Benbulben, 
the  multiform  Leitrim  range,  and  the  half-a-dozen  other  hills 
and  mountains,  each  with  surpassing  characteristic  beauties, 
which  would  meet  the  eye  of  the  promenader  wherever  he 
or  she  might  look. 

But  this  advantage,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  it,  would  be 
a  mere  accident  of  the  structure,  and  of  very  subordinate  and 
small  importance  in  comparison  of  the  essential  benefits  which 
the  pier,  with  deep  water  berths  alongside,  would  confer. 
Indeed,  one  could  hardly  exaggerate  the  prosperity  it  would 
lead  to  in  the  town  and  neighbourhood.  The  leading  cities  and 
towns  of  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  as  well  as  of  most 
other  countries,  owe  their  greatness  and  wealth  chiefly  to  their 
seaports  ;  and  this  is  so  well  understood  that  the  inhabitants  of 
these  places  spend  ungrudgingly  on  their  ports,  knowing  well 
that  the  money  thus  employed  is  sure  to  bring  them,  in  return, 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  353 


a  hundred  fold.  Inexperienced  people  open  their  eyes  in  wonder 
when  they  hear  of  the  fabulous  sums  that  have  been  sunk  in 
excavating  the  docks  of  London  and  Liverpool,  or  are  told  of 
the  millions  now  being  spent  in  cutting  the  Manchester  Ship 
Canal,  and  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  devoted  to  the  improve- 
ment of  minor  ports ;  but  men  of  the  world  and  merchants  are 
aware  that  this  is  the  most  beneficial  disposal  of  money  that  can 
be  made,  as  well  in  regard  to  those  who  thus  invest  it,  as  in 
respect  to  the  general  community. 

Eemembering  this,  the  people  of  Sligo  should  not  grudge  any 
outlay  on  their  harbour ;  and  they  have,  moreover,  a  strong 
special  motive  for  such  expenditure,  in  the  fact  that  nature  is 
working  with  them  in  a  way  that  she  is  not  doing  elsewhere,  by 
deepening,  gradually,  the  waters  of  the  bay.  So  far  back  as  the 
year  A.M.  3790,  the  increasing  tides  on  the  Sligo  coast  forced 
their  way,  for  the  first  time,  up  the  present  estuary  of  Drum- 
cliff,  thus  separating  the  district  of  the  Rosses  from  the  plain 
of  Magherow,  of  which,  to  that  time,  it  formed  a  connected  part. 
Since  then  the  waters  of  the  hay  have  been  rising  somewhat, 
and,  at  such  a  rate,  in  recent  times,  that  careful  and  competent 
observers  set  down  the  actual  average  level  at  or  near  two  feet 
above  what  it  was  forty  or  fifty  years  ago.  A  great  statesman, 
some  time  back,  boasted  that  the  "  flowing  "  tide  of  politics  was 
with  him,  and  made  use  of  the  fact  for  an  incitement  to  his 
followers  to  exert  themselves;  but  whatever  may  be  said  in 
regard  to  the  tide  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  spoke,  there  can  be 
no  doubt,  that  the  tides  on  the  Sligo  coast  are  flowing  fuller 
than  ever  into  the  harbour,  so  that  the  people  of  the  town  will 
be  to  blame  if  they  withhold  their  co-operation  from  Nature  in 
her  beneficent  work  of  improving  their  port,  which  is  at  present, 
and  must  remain  in  future,  the  ruling  factor  in  their  pros- 
perity. 

Hitherto,  as  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  the  Harbour  Commis- 
sioners and  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  have  done  their  duty  to 
the  port  in  a  way  that  is  highly  to  their  credit.  This  has  been 
proclaimed  by  more  than  one  Royal  Commission  sent  down  to 
VOL.  I.  z 


354  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 

inquire  into  the  state  of  the  harbour.  At  the  conclusion  of  an 
official  inquiry  on  September  28,  1845,  Captain  Washington, 
the  Tidal  Harbour  Commissioner,  complimented  the  Harbour 
Board  in  these  words: — "You  have  set  a  good  example  of 
energy  and  public  spirit.  You  have  done  the  utmost  with  your 
funds,  and  you  have  raised  funds  by  voluntary  subscription  ; " 
and  the  late  Royal  Commissioners  on  Irish  Public  Works,  in 
their  Second  Report,  speak  thus  in  terms  of  equal  praise,  "  The 
commercial  interests  of  Sligo  are  safe  in  the  hands  of  its  ener- 
getic inhabitants,  who  have  already  done  so  much  for  their 
port." 

Anyone  who  examines  the  subject  for  himself  will  find  this 
praise  richly  deserved.  It  is  not  so  long  since  no  vessel  of 
burden  would  venture  up  to  the  quays.  The  shallowness  of  the 
channel,  the  sharp  bend  in  it  near  Standalone  Point,  the  Flats, 
and  the  want  of  due  depth  at  the  quays,  prevented  masters  of 
vessels  from  coming  beyond  Oyster  Island  or  the  Pool;  but  all 
this  is  now  greatly,  though  not  entirely,  changed,  the  channel 
being  deepened,  the  bend  straightened  out,  the  Flats  left  out  of 
the  way,  and  the  berths  along  the  quays  so  sunk  that,  some 
time  ago,  the  "  Cockermouth,"  an  iron  ship  of  more  than  2,000 
tons  burden,  which  had  carried  2,000  tons  of  flour  from  Cali- 
fornia, in  40,000  bags,  got  berthed  at  her  ease  alongside  the 
inner  jetty  of  the  Ballast  Quay. 

Captain  Washington's  allusion  to  voluntary  subscriptions 
refers  to  what  occurred  in  connection  with  the  Blennick.  To 
rid  the  channel  of  this  formidable  obstruction,  the  Harbour 
Board  got  together  £3,000 — half  being  "  voluntary  subscrip- 
tions," and  half  a  loan — and  with  it  they  contracted  for  the 
removal  of  the  impediment,  with  the  late  Mr.  John  Brett,  of 
Tubbercurry,  who  executed  his  contract  to  the  satisfaction  of 
everyone.  All  these  efforts  and  sacrifices  are  a  subject  of 
legitimate  boast  to  the  Harbour  authorities  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Sligo,  as  well  as  a  guarantee  that  what  remains  to  be  done 
shall  be  done  in  due  time. 

Sligo,  no  doubt,  owes  its  rise  and  early  importance  to  its 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  355 


strategic  position.  Not  only  Maurice  Fitzgerald,  who  erected 
the  castle  of  the  town,  but  all  the  English  officials,  who  held 
high  military  command  in  the  country,  regarded  the  place  as 
the  Key  of  Connaught.  But  its  advantages,  in  this  respect, 
are  a  very  secondary  consideration  now,  and,  indeed,  no  longer 
exist,  for,  situated  as  it  is,  in  a  hollow,  it  could  not  resist,  for 
an  hour,  cannon  placed  on  any  of  the  surrounding  hills. 

The  chief,  then,  and  abiding  importance  of  the  town  comes 
from  its  port ;  which  is  so  circumstanced  that  the  trade  of  Lower 
Connaught  must  be  carried  on  through  it.  The  port  has  created 
the  market,  and  the  market,  in  return,  sustains  the  port.  Sligo 
is  the  great  market  for  a  large  extent  of  country,  there  being  no 
town,  of  any  size,  nearer  to  it,  on  the  south,  than  Boyle;  on  the 
north,  than  Enniskillen ;  while  on  the  east,  there  is  no  town  at 
all  within  reasonable  reach  ;  so  that  the  agricultural  produce  of 
this  rich  and  extensive  district  must  be  disposed  of  in  the  town, 
and  exported  from  it,  by  its  merchants,  who  have  generally 
thriven  on  the  trade,  and  occupied  a  high  place  in  the  mercantile 
community  of  Ireland. 

The  most  distinguished  and  prosperous  merchants  ever  con- 
nected with  Sligo  were,  probably,  the  Creans,  or  O'Creans.  They 
came  to  the  town  from  Tirconnell,  or  Donegal,  early  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  soon  acquired  great  wealth  and  high  station. 
At  first  they  confined  themselves  to  trade,  and  seem  to  have 
nearly  monopolized  the  trade  of  the  town,  for,  of  the  eleven  mer- 
chants mentioned  in  King  James*  General  Pardon, as  belonging  to 
Sligo,  nine  of  them  were  O'Creans.  They  were^very  successful 
in  business,  and,  after  a  time,  taking  to  the  purchase  of  land, 
they  soon  came  to  own  a  considerable  part  of  the  county,  every 
foot  of  which,  however,  they  lost  through  the  Insurrection  of 
1641. 

The  Everards  and  Martins  occupied,  in  a  later  day,  the  first 
place  among  the  merchants  of  Sligo  ;  and,  judging  by  what  Mr. 
Ignatius  Everard  once  stated  of  his  period,  which  covered  the 
American  and  French  wars,  commerce  was  never  so  active  and 
profitable  in  Sligo  as  during  these  wars.  The  Kellys,  Maddens, 


856  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


and  O'Connors  came  a  little  later  than  the  Everards,  and  were 
held  in  like  esteem.  The  Kellys  and  O'Connors  were  natives  of 
Sligo  or  the  neighbourhood ;  but  the  brothers  Madden  came, 
one  of  them,  from  Dublin,  where  he  was  a  distiller,  and  the 
three  others,  from  the  Queen's  County,  where  they  were  engaged 
in  extensive  business;  and  the  enterprise,  energy,  and  integrity 
which  they  exhibited,  after  settling  in  Sligo,  added  not  a  little 
to  the  respectability  of  the  merchant  body  of  the  town. 

The  merchandise  exported  and  imported  through  Sligo,  varied 
in  kind  as   well  as  in   quantity   with   the  times.     Oats   and 
oatmeal  were  among  the  earliest  exports,  as  they  have  always 
continued  to  be  among  the  largest.     Linen,  soon  after  the  trade 
was  introduced  to  this  part  of  Ireland,  became  a  leading  export. 
The  linen  trade  of  the  county  grew  up  in  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.     Dr.  McParlan  states  that,  in  1755,  there 
were  not  five  pieces  of  linen  sold  in  the  county,  but,  that  owing 
to  the  exertions  of  Mr.  Wynne,  Mr.  O'Hara,  Mr.  Knox,  and  the 
Fitzmaurices  of  Ballymote,  the  business  soon  flourished.     Its 
growth  must  have  been  quick ;  for  Arthur  Young,  writing  in 
1778,  says,  "Upwards  of    £40,000  per  annum,    in    yarn,    is 
exported    from  Sligo  to   Manchester    and  Liverpool."     From 
Appendix  VIII.  to  Newenham's  View  of  Ireland,  we  learn,  that 
in  1808,  91,706  yards  of  plain  linen  were  exported  from  Sligo, 
and  3,650  hogsheads  of  flax  seed  imported;  while  bleach-greens 
were  in  vigorous  work  at  Colloony,  Ballysadare,  Thornhill,  in 
the  parish  of  Kilvarnet,  Rathbroghan,  Drumcliffe,  and  Spring- 
field; the  owner  of  the  Springfield  Bleach  Mills,  being  Mr.  John 
Tucker,  the  head  of  the  highly  respectable  family  of  that  name. 
The  chief  exports  of  that  time  may  be  taken  to  be  oats,  oatmeal, 
beef,  butter,  pork,  linen,  linen  yarn,  tallow,  and  hides ;  and  the 
chief  imports,  timber,  flax-seed,  iron,  coal,  rum,  tobacco,  wine, 
potash,  pitch,  rosin,  indigo,  sugar,  and  hardware. 

Wakefield,  who  published  his  Account  of  Ireland,  in  1812, 
gives  linen  and  butter  as  the  "  chief  exports  "  of  Sligo  at  that 
time.  The  butter  trade  received  a  strong  impulse,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  from  the  practice,  which  then  set  in, 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  357 


of  packing  it  in  well  coopered  casks,  instead  of  crocks,  as  had 
been  the  case — this  change  of  method  increasing  largely  the 
demand  for  Sligo  butter,  and  giving  it  a  place  second  to  none  in 
the  English  and  other  markets.  In  1801,  twenty  thousand 
pounds  worth  of  it  was  exported. 

If  the  system  of  making  it  up  in  small  packages,  instead  of 
firkins,  which  is  so  strongly  recommended  at  present  by  persons 
who  can  speak  with  authority  on  the  subject,  were  generally 
adopted  through  the  country,  the  result  would  probably  be  the 
same  as  that  which  followed  the  change  from  crocks  to  casks, 
that  is,  a  marked  rise  in  the  price  and  character  of  Sligo  butter. 
Were  the  people  once  persuaded  that  it  is  their  interest  to  carry 
out  the  recommendation,  they  would  be  sure  to  do  as  desired, 
whatever  additional  trouble  might  be  entailed.  There  never 
was  a  time  when  country  women  took  such  pains  with 
their  butter,  and  this,  because  they  are  convinced  that  their 
labour  will  not  be  lost,  as  they  are  sure  that  the  present 
Inspector,  in  whom  they  have  the  fullest  confidence,  will  act 
without  fear  or  favour,  and  give  them  the  exact  "  quality  "  they 
deserve. 

It  is  no  secret,  however,  that  they  look  on  the  merchants  in 
a  different  light  from  that  in  which  they  regard  the  Inspector. 
Anyone  that  goes  much  among  them,  is  aware  that  they  feel 
very  sore  in  regard  to  certain  alleged  practices  of  the  merchants, 
notably  that  of  re-qualifying  the  butter,  and  altering,  in  private, 
the  public  and  official  qualification  of  the  Inspector.  This 
practice  is  not  of  to-day  or  yesterday's  growth,  for,  in  1844,  Mr. 
Christian,  the  weigh-master  of  the  butter  market,  complained 
in  his  evidence  before  the  Devon  Commission,  of  the  merchants 
in  this  respect.  According  to  this  witness,  the  merchants  were 
in  the  habit  of  changing  the  market  inspector's  qualification,  in 
order  that  they  might  be  able  to  qualify,  themselves,  as  they 
liked  ;  and  the  witness  swore  that  he  knew  merchants  to  often 
make  the  inspector's  second  quality  first ;  sometimes  the  third 
quality  first;  and,  extraordinary  as  it  may  seem,  even  the  fourth 
quality  first — so,  that  under  the  system  in  vogue,  scarce  a  cask 


35 8  HISTOKY  OF  SLIGO. 


of  butter  left  Sligo  with  the  original  mark  or  brand.  If  this 
state  of  things  exist  still,  the  sooner  it  is  reformed  the  better. 

It  is  said,  that  great  improvements  in  the  markets  and 
market  regulations  of  Sligo  have  been  effected  under  the  Sligo 
Borough  Improvement  Act  of  1869.  It  was  this  Act  that 
enabled  the  Town  Council  to  become  owners  of  the  town 
markets,  by  purchasing  them,  in  1885,  from  Mr.  Wynne.  The 
purchase  money  amounted  to  £6,500.  It  is  highly  creditable 
to  the  Town  Council,  that  Mr.  Black,  the  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Market  Rights  and  Tolls,  who  visited  Sligo,  and 
took  evidence  concerning  its  markets,  on  the  21st  August,  of 
the  current  year  (1888),  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  the  markets 
and  market  regulations  of  Sligo  Borough  were  second  to  nothing 
he  had  met  with  in  any  of  the  forty-five  towns  of  Ireland  he 
had  visited  up  to  that  date. 

The  fine  fishery  of  Sligo  Bay  must  count  for  something  in 
the  value  of  the  port.  The  shell-fish  of  the  estuary,  and  more 
especially  its  oysters,  have  been  always  so  abundant,  and  of  so 
prime  a  quality,  that  the  river  got  the  name  of  Sligeach — the 
shelly  river — from  the  circumstance.  The  two  other  inlets  of 
the  bay,  those  of  Ballysadare  and  Drumcliffe,  are  also  noted 
habitats  of  the  famous  bivalve.  At  the  Lower  Rosses,  where 
the  soil  has  not  been  disturbed,  you  find  still  banks  of  oyster 
deposit,  three  or  four  feet  deep ;  and  the  inlet  of  Ballysadare 
contains  such  evidence  of  the  past  extraordinary  abundance  of 
the  fish,  that  a  well  informed  and  observant  English  traveller, 
who  visited  the  place  recently,  wrote  of  it  in  the  Manchester 
News  on  his  return  home : — "  The  shores  of  Ballysadare  are 
unique  in  character,  and  at  the  risk  of  being  charged  with 
exaggeration,  I  may  say,  that  they  consist  of  one  vast  tract  of 
oyster- shell  deposit."  This  was  written  of  the  right  bank  of  the 
river,  but  it  applies  just  as  much  to  the  left  bank,  of  which  the 
celebrated  artists,  Beranger  and  Bigari,  write  in  their  Tour 
through  Connaught,  in  1779  : — "At  Tanrego  we  were  shown 
(when  the  tide  was  out)  two  islands,  which,  when  the  tide  is  in, 
are  not  accessible  but  by  a  boat,  on  which  cattle  were  grazing ; 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  359 


the  foundation  of  which  islands  are  oyster  shells,  with  about  six 
inches  of  earth  over  them.  Walked  round  them  and  was 
amazed  at  the  sight.  The  oysters  are  so  plenty  at  Tanrego, 
that  they  are  got  by  cars  full,  only  paying  the  carriage."  Mr. 
Verschoyle  has  at  present  a  flourishing  oyster  bed  at  Tanrego., 

The  salmon  fishery  of  the  bay  is  remarkable  for  the  number 
and  quality  of  the  fish,  and  for  the  fact,  that  they  are  in 
season  throughout  the  whole  year.  Naturalists  have  not  been 
able  to  account  satisfactorily  for  this  fact,  but  the  authors  of 
the  old  lives  of  St.  Patrick,  ascribe  the  valuable  peculiarity 
to  the  blessing  of  the  saint.  The  Vita  Tripartita  tells,  that 
the  saint,  having  in  his  missionary  rounds  reached  the 
Sligo  river  in  the  winter  season,  and,  being  greatly  fatigued, 
and  in  need  of  refreshment,  having  asked  a  salmon  of  fishermen 
•whom  he  met  at  the  river,  was  informed  by  them,  that  salmon 
were  never  taken  there  in  the  winter.  They  added,  however, 
that  as  he  desired  it,  they  would  cast  the  net,  and  having  done 
so,  they  took  a  fine  salmon,  which  they  presented  to  the  saint, 
when  he,  in  return  for  the  kindness,  blessed  the  Sligeach,  and 
imparted  to  it  the  privilege  of  yielding  salmon  all  the  year  round. 

This  great  privilege  the  Sligeach  possesses  still,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, the  Fishery  Inspectors  allow  fishing  to  begin  earlier 
here  than  elsewhere.  Before  according  this  privilege,  the 
Inspectors  laid  on  Mr.  Petrie,  the  present  lessee  of  the  fishery, 
the  onus  of  proving  the  justice  of  his  claim  to  exceptional  treat- 
ment, which  he  did,  to  their  satisfaction,  by  actual  experiment ; 
for,  sending  his  men  to  the  river,  on  the  30th  October,  1886,  to 
try  a  haul,  they  netted  one  salmon,  weighing  181b.,  another 
231b.,  and  some  others,  ranging  from  lOlb.  to  161b.,  all  in  ex- 
cellent condition  for  the  table.  Other  trials  having  been  made 
later  with  similarly  satisfactory  results,  the  Inspectors  directed 
the  Sligo  Fishery  to  open  on  the  1st  January,  though  they 
keep  the  neighbouring  fisheries  of  the  Ballysadare,  Drumcliffe, 
and  Grange  rivers  closed  up  to  the  4th  February. 

There  is  good  ground  for  thinking,  that  the  herring  fishery 
might  be  rendered  very  beneficial  to  the  port.  In  the  fifteenth 


360  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


and  sixteenth  centuries,  it  attracted  boats  and  men  from  Spain 
and  other  parts  of  the  Continent ;  and  "Wakefield  writes,  that 
down  to  1783,  it  was  of  "great  importance  to  Sligo,  and  along 
the  whole  western  coast  of  Ireland."  Far  from  ceasing  at  the 
year  mentioned,  it  continued  to  give  fair  employment,  and  to 
yield  good  profits,  till  thirty  or  forty  years  ago,  when  the  boats 
used  for  fishing  disappeared,  and  many  of  the  fishermen 
emigrated  or  turned  to  other  pursuits,  though  it  is  well  known, 
that  the  herring  are  still  in  the  bay. 

If  we  add  to  the  oysters,  the  salmon,  and  the  herring,  just 
mentioned,  the  various  other  kinds  of  fish  which  the  Sligo  waters 
yield,  in  almost  equal  abundance ;  notably,  the  turbot,  of  the 
three  fine  turbot  banks  of  Milkhaven,  Portavad,  and  Eniskrone ; 
the  cod,  of  the  whole  stretch  from  Aughris  Head  to  Hawlboline, 
as  well  within  as  without  the  well  known  ledge,  which  runs 
between  these  points;  the  lobsters,  of  the  rocks  along  the  coasts 
of  Tireragh  and  Carbury,  and  round  the  island  of  Innismurry, 
so  numerous,  that  40,000  of  them  are  taken  annually,  in  the 
stretch  running  from  Coney  Island  to  Mullaghmore ;  and  the 
shoals  of  mackerel  and  whiting  which  visit  the  bay  in  their  re- 
spective seasons ;  we  shall  the  better  understand  how  valuable 
the  fisheries  of  Sligo  might  be  made,  both  to  the  town  and  port. 
Neglect  of  these  resources  was  little  remarkable  in  the  past, 
when  oysters  might  be  had  for  the  asking,  and  salmon  was  sold 
for  a  couple  of  pence  a  pound,  sometimes  for  one  penny ;  but  it 
would  be  very  different  now,  when  fish  of  all  kinds  have  risen 
so  enormously  in  price,  when  oysters  fetch  twenty  shillings  a 
hundred,  and  salmon  average,  for  the  year,  about  2s.  a  pound, 
and  have  risen,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  to  the  fabulous  price 
of  6s.  6d. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

STIRRING   OCCURRENCES. 

SOME  important  occurrences  took  place  in  or  near  Sligo,  in  the 
closing  years  of  the  last  century,  and  the  earlier  years  of  the 
present,  which  may  be  appropriately  noticed  here. 

The  Volunteer  movement,  which  convulsed  Ireland  in  1782, 
was  felt  in  Sligo  as  in  the  other  parts  of  the  country.  The 
famous  Dungannon  Resolutions,  of  the  loth  of  February  of  that 
year  stirred  Ireland  from  end  to  end,  and,  for  months,  the  great 
business  of  everybody  was  to  endorse  the  Resolutions,  and  to 
engage  in  the  course  of  conduct  which  they  recommended. 
Parliamentary  Independence  was  then  the  watchword  that 
Home  Rule  is  now,  and  created  a  similar  agitation.  The  monster 
out-door  meetings  of  the  present  day,  were  unknown  then,  and 
continued  unknown  down  to  O'Connell's  Repeal  agitation;  but  if 
the  demonstrations  of  1782  could  not  cope  in  numbers  with  those 
of  Home  Rule,  they  were  even  more  formidable  in  some  other 
respects,  as  in  the  thousands  of  uniformed  troops  that  marched 
to  them  ;  in  the  defiant  martial  music  that  accompanied  these 
troops  ;  in  the  arms  they  had  in  their  hands  ;  and  in  the  solemn 
resolution  they  put  on  record,  never  to  lay  down  their  arms  till 
the  object  for  which  they  had  organized  was  gained. 

The  proceedings  at  these  meetings  were  much  the  same  as  at 
those  now  held — the  speeches  as  exciting,  the  resolutions  as 
violent,  and  the  spirit  of  all  engaged  as  enthusiastic  and  unyield- 
ing. Even  boycotting  resolutions  were  employed.  For  instance, 
at  a  meeting  of  the  True  Blue  Volunteers  of  Londonderry,  held 
on  the  llth  March,  1782,  Captain  William  Lecky  in  the  chair, 
it  was  resolved  unanimously,  "  That  if  any  Irishman  has  been, 
or  shall  be,  hardy  enough  to  assert,  that  any  body  of  men,  other 


362  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


than  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  had,  have,  or 
ought  to  have,  a  right  to  make  laws  to  bind  this  realm,  in  any 
case  whatsoever,  every  suck  man  insults  the  majesty  of  the 
King  of  Ireland,  the  dignity  of  its  Parliament,  and  the  whole 
body  of  its  people-,  is  AN  ENEMY  TO  THIS  KINGDOM,  AND 

OUGHT  TO  BE  REPROBATED  AS  SUCH  BY  EVERY  FRIEND  OF 

IRELAND."*  The  drama  then  was  the  same,  the  actors  only 
were  different — the  Protestant  nobility  and  gentry,  Protestant 
parsons,  and  Protestant  freeholders,  playing  in  1782,  the  parts 
now  acted  by  the  priests  and  the  masses. 

Several  meetings  were  held  in  the  county  Sligo,  or  on  the  bor- 
ders. The  Loyal  Sligo  Volunteers  assembled  on  parade  at  Sligo, 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1782,  under  the  presidency  of  Colonel  John 
Ormsby,  and  passed  the  following  resolution  : — u  That  as  citizens 
and  soldiers,  we  do  heartily  approve  of  the  Dungannon  address 
to  the  minority  of  both  houses  of  parliament,  and  do  most  cheer- 
fully adopt  their  resolutions  of  the  15th  of  February  last,  for 
obtaining  a  redress  of  grievances  ;  and  that  we  will,  to  the 
utmost  of  our  power,  co-operate  with  them  and  the  several 
volunteer  corps  of  this  kingdom,  for  so  desirable  a  purpose."  f 
On  the  1st  April,  a  meeting  of  the  "  Gentlemen  Freeholders  " 
of  the  county,  convened  by  the  High  Sheriff,  George  Dodwell, 
and  presided  over  by  him,  took  place  at  Sligo,  and  passed 
several  resolutions,  including  the  following  : — "  That  the  resolu- 
tions entered  into  by  the  Delegates,  assembled  at  Dungannon 
and  Ballinasloe,  by  the  Volunteer  associations,  and  since  approved 
by  the  different  meetings  of  several  other  corps  and  counties  of 
this  kingdom,  are  such  as  ought  to  be  adopted  by  every 
friend  to  the  liberties  and  commerce  of  Ireland."  J  At  the 
same  date — 1st  April — there  was  a  meeting  at  Collooney  of  the 
"  Tirerrill  True  Blues"  the  Eev.  John  Little  in  the  chair,  when 
several  resolutions  were  passed,  one  of  them  containing  this 
rather  strong  declaration,  "  And  we  also  declare,  that  we  will,  in 

*  "Dunganuon  Resolutions."— By  C.  H.  Wilson,— page  45. 
t  Idem,  p.  26. 
£  Idem,  p.  147. 


HISTORY  OF    SLIGO.  363 


every  capacity,  oppose  the  execution  of  all  sucJi  statutes  as  the 
(at  present,  to  us,  seemingly)  usurped  authority  of  a  British 
parliament  has  hitherto  enacted,  or  may  hereafter  attempt  to 
impose  on  a  country,  whose  great  wishes  are  to  be  FREE."* 
Inhabitants  of  the  county  took  part  in  the  meeting  of  the  Loyal 
Ballina  and  Ardnaree  Volunteers,  held  on  the  28th  March, 
Lieutenant  Robert  Jones  in  the  chair  ;  and  in  a  meeting  of  the 
Drumahaire  Blues,  of  the  25th  March,  Lieutenant  Armstrong 
in  the  chair — while  a  deputation  consisting  of  Colonel  Charles 
O'Hara,  Colonel  Sir  Booth  Gore,  Baronet,  Colonel  Lewis  Francis 
Irwin,  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  John  Ormsby,  assisted  at  the 
great  provincial  meeting  of  Connaught  Volunteers,  held  at 
Ballinasloe,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Lord  Clanrickarde,  on 
15th  March,  and  attended  by  "Delegates  from  fifty-nine  Volun- 
teer Corps  of  the  Province  of  Connaught.'*  f 

The  spirit  of  the  Volunteers  of  the  time  was  in  the  air,  and 
penetrated  into  places  where  no  one  would  expect  it  to  enter. 
Boys'  schools  became  as  filled  with  it  as  officers'  mess  rooms,  and 
the  play-ground  was  turned  into  a  place  of  parade.  Athletic 
sports,  as  sometimes  happens  at  present,  took  the  form  of  mimic 
warfare,  and  the  athletes  practised  their  exercises  with  the  view 
of  acquiring  dexterity  in  the  use  of  arms,  rather  than  of  develop- 
ing their  physical  powers. 

The  lads  attending  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong's  school,  catching 
the  prevailing  infection,  donned  military  uniform,  procured 
arms,  formed  themselves  into  a  regiment,  passed  much  of  their 
time  in  going  through  military  evolutions,  and  formed  so  high 
an  opinion  of  their  own  effectiveness,  that  when  the  famous  Henry 
Flood,  in  his  role  of  General  of  Volunteers,  reached  Sligo  on  a 
tour  of  inspection,  they  asked  him  to  review  their  regiment, 
which  he  not  only  did,  but  favoured  them,  besides,  with  a  stir- 
ring speech.  J 

*  Idem,  p.  153. 
fldem,  page  61. 

t Henry  Flood,  says  Charles  Phillips,  "having  come  to  my  native  town, 
Sligo,  in  his  military  capacity,  the  boys  of  the  Rev.  W.  Armstrong's  school 


364  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


"  Nothing  under  the  sun  is  new,"  says  Solomon,  "  neither  is 
any  man  able  to  say,  Behold  this  is  new:  for  it  hath  already 
gone  before,  in  the  ages  that  were  before  us  ; "  and  whoever 
calls  to  mind  the  extraordinary  doings  of  1782,  and  compares 
them  with  those  we  have  been  witnessing  for  the  last  couple  of 
years,  will  find,  in  the  comparison,  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
Wise  Man's  famous  dictum. 

In  Sligo,  as  in  other  places,  parliamentary  elections  were  often 
a  source  of  trouble  and  ill  will  to  all  classes.  This  observation 
does  not  apply  to  elections  for  the  borough  before  the  days  of 
reform,  which  passed  off  quietly  and  almost  unnoticed,  as  the 
nominees  of  Mr.  Wynne,  the  patron  of  the  borough,  met,  and 
could  meet  with  no  opposition.  It  was  only  in  the  borough 
election  of  1833,  which  took  place  under  the  new  law  on  the 
Municipal  Corporations  of  Ireland,  that  a  borough  election  first 
became  a  stirring  affair.  On  that  occasion,  Mr.  John  Martin, 
whose  father  had  a  strife  of  some  standing  with  the  Wynnes  of 
Hazelwood,  opposed  Mr.  John  Wynne,  and  ejected  him  from  a 
position,  which  he,  or  some  ancestor  of  his,  had  occupied  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years. 

Mr.  Martin,  in  turn,  lost  the  seat  in  1837,  chiefly  through  the 
interference  of  Dean  Dunleavy,  who,  thinking  that  Mr.  Martin  had 
proved  false  to  the  promises  and  principles,  which  secured  his 


appeared  before  him  in  martial  uniform  at  a  review ;  for,  at  that  time,  the 
spirit  of  arms  alike  animated  the  crutch  and  the  nursery.  Flood  immediately 
addressed  the  schoolboy  regiment  in  the  following  terms  : — '  It  is  related  to 
the  honour  of  a  Spartan  chief,  that  he  was  fond  of  superintending  the  sports  of 
children :  your  sports  are  superior  to  those  of  the  Spartan  boys.  But  shall  I 
call  them  sports  ?  No,  they  are  exertions  which  make  youths  men,  and  without 
which  men  are  but  children  !  Milton,  in  his  treatise  on  Education,  has  set 
apart  precepts  for  military  exercises,  which  your  worthy  teacher  has  brought 
into  example,  and  I  behold  your  early,  but  auspicious  exertions  with  the  same 
pleasure  the  husbandman  contemplates  the  pleasing  promise  of  a  benignant 
harvest.  Go  on — and  supply  the  succession  of  those  fruitful  labourers  for  the 
public  good  whom  time  may  take  away.'  Such,"  continues  Phillips,  "was  the 
impression  of  this  beautiful  address  upon  the  youthful  mind,  that  I  had  it 
verbatim  from  my  father  (who  happened  to  be  a  member  of  the  corps,)  after  a 
recollection  of  thirty  years."— Emerald  Isle.  Sixth  Edition.— page  210. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  365 


election  in  1833,  ran  Mr.  Somers  successfully  against  him,  and 
sent  him  back  to  private  life.  The  contests  of  1847,  between 
Mr.  Somers  and  Mr.  Townley ;  of  1852,  between  Mr.  Sadlier 
and  Mr.  Townley;  of  1857,  between  Mr.  Somers  and  Mr. 
Wynne  ;  of  1865,  between  Sergeant  Armstrong  and  Counsellor 
McDonogh;  and  of  1868,  between  Mr.  Flanagan  and  Mr.  Knox, 
were  characterised  by  the  evils  of  rioting,  drunkenness,  and 
corruption  of  various  kinds,  and  issued  not  very  unnaturally,  in 
the  disfranchisement  of  the  borough,  under  circumstances  which 
no  friend  of  Sligo  can  look  back  on  with  pleasure. 

County  elections  were  sometimes  the  occasion  of  similar  or 
still  greater  evils.  From  the  beginning,  the  leading  gentry  of 
the  county, who  had  come  in  under  Cromwell  and  the  Restoration, 
showed  great  ambition  for  a  seat  in  Parliament,  and,  in  general, 
were  not  over  scrupulous  as  to  the  means  they  would  employ  to 
secure  election,  and  defeat  rival  candidates.  Judging  from 
petitions  lodged  by  defeated  candidates,  and  praying  for  redress, 
it  would  appear,  that  sheriffs  of  the  county,  when  acting  as 
returning  officers,  decided  in  favour  of  their  friends,  irrespective 
of  the  votes  of  the  constituents. 

On  the  4th  September,  1695,  Arthur  Cooper,  of  Markrea, 
lodged  a  petition,  complaining  that  "Adam  Ormsby,  Sheriff, 
returned  Edward  Wingfield  and  Hugh  Morgan,  as  duly  elected 
Knights  of  the  shire,  whereas,  it  was  Edward  Wingfield  and 
the  petitioner  that  were  returned." 

On  the  30th  September,  1703,  William  Ormsby  presented  a 
petition,  alleging,  "  that  Kane  O'Hara,  High  Sheriff,  refused  the 
votes  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Bethall,  and  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Authenleck,  who  wished  to  vote  for  petitioner,"  and  that 
O'Hara,  when  remonstrated  with,  and  threatened  with  having 
his  conduct  brought  under  the  notice  of  Parliament,  said,  "  that 
the  Committee  of  Elections,  was  a  Committee  of  assertions,"  and 
that  he  "  had  interest  enough,  to  continue  sitting  the  man  he 
returned,  though  he  should  have  only  three  votes." 

On  the  31st  July,  1719,  Joshua  Cooper  lodged  a  petition, 
reciting,  "that  he  was  duly  elected  in  the  room  of  Chidley 


366  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


Coote,  Esq. ;  that,  notwithstanding,  Francis  Ormsby,  Esq.,  pro- 
cured himself  to  be  returned  by  the  management  and  partiality 
of  Richard  Gore,  Esq.,  present  Sheriff  of  the  county,  who  is 
uncle  to  the  said  Mr.  Ormsby ;  and  praying  the  House  to  grant 
petitioner  such  relief,  as  to  its  great  wisdom  shall  seem  best." 

A  petition,  of  unusual  interest  in  its  circumstances,  was  pre- 
sented on  the  27th  of  October,  1777,  by  William  Ormsby, 
stating,  that  "  on  the  1st  May  last,  a  writ  issued  for  electing  two 
Knights,  to  represent  in  Parliament  the  county  Sligo  ;  that 
the  Honourable  Owen  Wynne  and  Joshua  Cooper,  declared 
themselves  candidates,  and  publicly  united  their  interest ;  that 
petitioner  and  Sir  Booth  Gore  also  declared  themselves  can- 
didates; that  the  poll  was  carried  on  from  the  23rd  May  to 
the  7th  June,  the  booths  being,  sometimes,  open  from  6  o'clock 
in  the  morning  to  10  o'clock  at  night ;  that  several  of  Wynne's 
voters  were  influenced  by  bribery  and  corruption ;  that  Henry 
Griffith,  the  Sheriff,  acted  all  through  with  partiality ;  and,  that 
petitioner  would  have  had  a  majority,  if  Sheriff  rejected  wrong 
votes  and  admitted  right  ones." 

Another  election  and  another  petition  soon  followed,  the  con- 
test lying  between  William  Ormsby  and  Owen  Wynne,  junior. 
The  petition  was  presented  to  the  House,  on  the  22 ad  July, 
1778,  by  Mr.  Charles  O'Hara,  member  for  the  county,  and, 
inextricably  mixed  with  the  petition  of  1777,  led  to  proceedings 
before  two  different  committees  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  lasted  for  two  years,  and  entailed,  on  the  parties  con- 
cerned, enormous  expense,  which  is  still  felt  by  their  descendants, 
after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  hundred  years.  This  petition  is 
also  remarkable,  for  being  the  first  great  case  in  which  Curran 
was  employed ;  he,  with  Mr.  Mee  and  Mr.  Frazer,  being  counsel 
for  Mr.  Wynne ;  while  Messrs.  McCarthy  and  Finucane,  acted 
for  Ormsby.  The  record  of  the  proceedings,  including  the 
examination  of  witnesses,  is  still  extant,  and  may  be  found  in 
the  Public  Record  Office,  Dublin,  in  a  "  bundle  "  of  Parliamen- 
tary Papers,  numbered  "  58." 

Though  election  contests  often  stir  up  bad  blood,  it  is  seldom 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  367 


they  generate  such  bitter  vindictiveness,  as  showed  itself  011  this 
occasion.     It  would  seem,  as  if  each  party  were  satisfied  to  ruin 
himself,  provided,  only  he  could  ruin  his  opponent,  which,  of 
course,  was  the  more  remarkable,  as  they  were  brothers-in-law, 
and  as  the  friendliest  relations  had  hitherto  prevailed  between 
the  two  families.     In  the   election  of  1768,  Mr.  Ormsby  was 
chosen  one  of  the  members  for  the  borough  of  Sligo  ;  and  at  the 
approach  of  the  general  election  of  1776,  Mr.  Wynne  informed 
him  that  he  could  have  the  seat  no  longer,  as  it  was  wanted  for 
another :  no  doubt,  Mr.  Hutchinson,  who  afterwards  obtained  it. 
This  incensed  Mr.  Ormsby,  and  he  threatened,  if  the  borough 
seat  were  taken  from  him,  to  oppose  Mr.  Wynne  in  the  county. 
Both  gentlemen  were  as  good  as  their  word,  the  result  being  one 
of  the  most  bitter,  protracted,  and  expensive  election  contests  on 
record. 

It  is  quite  clear  from  the  evidence,  that  the  "  bribery,  corrup- 
tion, and  partiality  of  sheriff,"  complained  of  in  the  petition, 
actually  took  place.  The  bribery  and  corruption  were  practised 
very  probably  by  both  sides,  in  various  shapes  and  ways,  voters 
getting  whatever  they  desired.  Spirituous  drinks,  more 
especially  in  the  form  of  "rum  punch"  and  "claret,"  flowed 
about  as  freely  as  water ;  and,  to  use  the  words  of  an  official 
document,  "money,  meat,  drink,  reward,  entertainment,  pro- 
visions, and  gifts,  as  well  as  promises,  and  agreements,  and 
engagements  of  such  gifts  and  rewards,"  were  the  chief  means 
employed  to  sway  the  electors.  As  to  the  partiality  of  the 
sheriff,  it  was  abundantly  established  by  the  stealing  of  the 
Poll  Book,  which  could  hardly  happen  without,  at  least,  his  con- 
nivance ;  by  the  tearing  out  and  burning  of  several  pages  of  this 
book  ;  and  by  the  throwing  across  the  battlement  of  Sligo  bridge 
of  sundry  electoral  lists,  of  which  he  was  the  legal  custodian. 
Such  were  the  doings  of  the  gentry  and  public  officials  of  the 
county  Sligo,  about  a  century  ago. 

The  contest  in  1822,  between  Colonel  Percival,  and  Colonel 
afterwards  General  King,  on  occasion  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Charles 
O'Hara,  if  less  expensive,  was  hardly  less  exciting  while  it  lasted. 


368  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


The  candidates,  it  is  said,  acted  with  great  urbanity  to  each 
other,  considerately  leaving,  though  military  men,  all  the  fight- 
ing to  their  respective  followers.  Each  had  his  moh ;  that  of 
General  King,  being  under  the  command  of  a  notorious  tinker, 
remarkable  for  his  colossal  size  and  his  mastery  of  shilelagh 
practice,  and  that  of  Colonel  Percival,  being  headed  by  a  tenant 
of  his  own,  the  late  Billy  Healy,  of  Templehouse,  one  of  the 
most  powerful,  active,  and  fearless  men  in.  the  county.  The 
mobs  had  their  respective  quarters  in  different  districts  of  the 
town ;  and  woe  to  the  straggler,  who,  under  the  influence  of 
bravado  or  drink,  made  his  way  to  the  quarters  of  the  enemy. 
Collisions  were  constantly  occurring  between  detached  parties  of 
each  side,  the  belligerents  being  pretty  evenly  matched,  till 
General  King  summoned  to  his  aid  a  large  contingent  of  reck- 
less rascals  from  Coolcarney,  who  took  Sligo,  as  it  were  by  storm, 
and  domineered  in  it  while  the  polling  lasted,  and  till  the  General 
had  gained  the  victory,  and  was  chaired.  Still  it  was  as 
much  as  the  military  could  do  to  keep  the  mobs  in  order,  and 
to  quell  the  riots,  which,  notwithstanding  all  the  efforts  of  the 
authorities,  were  constantly  coming  on  ;  and  on  one  occasion,  a 
riot  in  front  of  the  hustings  became  so  formidable,  that  the 
soldiers  had  to  fire  in  self-defence,  it  is  said,  on  the  rioters,  but, 
as  the  report  adds,  "fortunately  without  doing  injury  to  any  one." 
As  not  unfrequently  happens  in  Irish  commotions  farce  or 
comedy  alternated  with  tragedy,  so  that  those  who  loved  a 
laugh  might  enjoy  it  while  reading  the  squibs  and  pasquinades 
posted  on  the  dead  walls  of  the  town.  Though  these  effusions 
possessed  only  a  very  slender  modicum  of  either  rhyme  or  reason , 
a  sample  or  two  may  be  given,  if  for  no  other  object,  because 
they  preserve  the  names  and  peculiarities,  or  fancied  peculiarities 
of  some  of  the  Dramatis  personal  in  the  great  King  and  Percival 
contest  of  1822.  The  late  Jeremiah  Jones  was  often  hit  at  by 
the  poetasters,  as  in  the  following  doggrel,  regarding  the  bill  of 
fare  at  a  banquet  of  Colonel  Percival's  friends  and  suppor- 
ters : — 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  369 

"  Haunch  of  venison  from  Owen  Wynne's  park, 
Brought  specially  to  town  by  his  man  Percy  Clarke. 
There  was  also  a  dish  of  mutton  ragout, 
But  how  to  dispense  it  put  them  in  a  stew. 
Between  fishing  and  fowling  they  fetched  up  some  bones, 
A  delicate  morsel  for  spruce  Jerry  Jones." 

It  appears  that  Mr.  Jones  was,  at  this  time,  confined  for  debt 
in  Sligo  jail,  as  was  also  a  friend  of  his,  Mr.  Robert  Ormsby, 
and,  like  others  imprisoned  for  the  same  cause,  they  were  let 
at  large  only  on  Sundays.  Pasquin  thus  refers  to  the  circum- 
stance : — 

"Hallo,  Bob,  and  Jerry  you  seem  very  merry, 
The  Insolvency  Act  is  a  backing  we  knoiv, 
One  would  suppose  all  Sligo  was  theirs, 
Though  they  never  get  out  but  on  Sunday  for  prayers." 

A  reference  to  Mr.  Abraham  Martin  is  more  spirited  and 
pointed.  To  appreciate  the  following  squib,  it  is  well  to  re- 
member that  Mr.  Martin  had  the  reputation  of  being  immensely 
rich  and  purse  proud,  and  that  he  was  willing  to  part  with 
large  sums,  if  he  could  thereby  humble  some  of  the  magnates 
of  the  county.  The  formula  of  asseveration  employed  in  the 
first  line  is  in  character;  for  it  is  well  known  that  the  interjec- 
tion, or  exclamation,  or  whatever  else  casuists  may  think  it,  was 
constantly  coming  up  in  his  conversation,  and  that  he  regarded 
it  as  a  clever  device,  which  enabled  him  to  indulge  in  the  then 
fashionable  luxury  of  an  oath,  and,  at  the  same  time,  saved  him, 
both  here  and  hereafter,  from  any  penalty  for  the  indulgence. 
He  was  a  sturdy  supporter  of  King  : — 

"  By  Clix,  you  beggar  band,  we'll  pinch  you  tight  and  tighter, 
We've  shining  cash  in  hand,  enough  to  fill  a  lighter. 
Money  is  the  thing — it  makes  the  mare  go  harder, 
I'll  pump  it  out  to  King,  and  baffle  all  your  ardour." 

King,  who  was  the  popular  favourite,  gained  the  day,  but 
numbers  in  Sligo  and  elsewhere  had  cause  to  rue  the  triumph, 
as  it  cost  them  dear.  The  General  was  liberal  in  his  entertain- 
ments, but  at  other  people's  expense,  for,  though  he  had  "  open 
houses  "  everywhere,  he  was  very  chary  of  paying  his  bills  ;  the 
VOL  I.  2  A 


370  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


result  being  that  sundry  owners  of  groceries  and  spirit  stores 
became  so  impoverished,  by  executing  his  orders  during  the 
election,  that  they  were  soon  driven  from  house  and  home,  and 
had,  in  some  instances,  to  take  to  hawking  apples  and  cadging 
herrings. 

Whatever  other  crimes  may  have  been  occasioned  by  this 
election  of  1822,  it  appears  that,  long  as  it  lasted,  it  was  free 
from  the  guilt  of  murder.  In  this  respect  it  had  the  advantage 
over  some  other  contests,  which,  though  of  shorter  duration,  and 
in  general,  of  a  quieter  character,  led  to  loss  of  life.  In  the 
election  of  1847,  in  which  Mr.  Somers  and  Mr.  Townley  were 
candidates,  a  man  named  Harte  was  killed  in  Knox's  Street ; 
in  1837,  when  the  late  Father  Daniel  Jones,  then,  of  course,  a 
layman,  Mr.  Cooper,  and  Colonel  Percival,  were  candidates, 
Michael  McDonogh,  a  highly  respectable  inhabitant  of  Collooney, 
was  shot  dead,  on  the  high  road,  near  Townyfortes,  as  he  was  on 
his  way  home ;  and  in  1868,  in  the  contest  of  Mr.  Denis  O'Conor, 
with  Colonel  Cooper  and  Sir  Robert  Gore  Booth,  Captain  King 
was  shot  in  a  scuffle,  and,  as  far  as  appears,  with  his  own  pistol, 
and  by  his  own  nephew,  who  interfered  only  with  the  object  of 
saving  his  uncle. 

This  election  of  1822  is  memorable  for  one  noteworthy  circum- 
stance— it  was  the  first  County  Sligo  election  in  which  priests 
took  any  active  part.  Up  to  that  the  Catholic  clergy  of  the 
neighbourhood  regarded  themselves  as  outside  the  pale  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  wanted  only  to  be  let  alone,  leaving  it  to  others  to 
practise  and  manage  politics  as  they  liked.  The  new  departure 
excited  at  the  time  much  attention,  and  the  more  so,  of  course,  as 
it  was  a  success  in  the  event.  Reference  was  made  to  the  matter 
more  than  once  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Select  Committees 
of  the  Houses  of  Lords  and  Commons,  appointed  in  1824  to 
inquire  into  the  State  of  Ireland.  For  example,  O'Connell 
being  under  examination,  and  asked,  "  Are  you  able  to  specify 
any  particular  instance  in  which  the  interference  of  the  clergy 
prevailed  ?  "  replied,  "  I  understand  it  was  successfully,  and,  I 
think,  usefully  exerted  in  Sligo." 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  371 


It  is  remarkable  that  the  priests  were  so  successful  on  this 
occasion,  considering  that  they  had  no  experience  in  election 
proceedings.  No  doubfc,  it  was  owing  to  the  great  number  of 
Catholic  forty-shilling  freeholders,  that  had  votes  at  the  time, 
most  of  whom  would  listen  with  deference  to  the  advice  or 
opinion  of  the  priest  in  respect  to  their  duty.  In  1727  Catholics 
were  deprived  of  the  electoral  franchise ;  in  1793  it  was  restored  to 
them;  and  immediately  the  landlords  of  the  county  set  themselves 
to  making  forty- shilling  voters  of  the  newly  enfranchised  as  exten- 
sively as  they  could.  The  election  of  Wynne  and  Ormsby,  in 
1777,  was  fought  with  exclusively  Protestant  votes,  and,  much 
as  it  agitated  the  county,  the  priests  had  nothing  to  do  with  it, 
no  name  of  a  priest  occurring  in  the  voluminous  account  of  the 
contest  which  has  come  down  to  us.  It  is  told,  in  the  report  of  the 
proceedings  in  connexion  with  the  petitions,  which  followed  this 
election,  that  Holborn  Street  contained  more  forty-shilling  free- 
holders than  the  rest  of  the  town.  The  abolition  of  the  forty- 
shilling  vote  in  1829  greatly  simplified  and  curtailed  election 
proceedings  in  the  county,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that,  on  the  1st  of  January,  1829,  when  the  vote  existed,  there 
were  5,036  electors  in  the  county,  whereas  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1830,  after  the  abolition  of  the  vote,  there  were  only  G10. 

But  the  abolition  led  to  an  evil  which  far  more  than  counter- 
vailed any  advantage  accruing  from  it.  This  was  the  Clearance 
System,  which,  more  than  anything  else,  has  served  to  land  the 
country  in  the  political  deadlock  and  impasse  of  the  present  time. 
So  long  as  cottiers  and  small  tenants  brought  the  landlord 
consequence  by  their  vote,  they  were  encouraged  and  courted, 
but  the  moment  the  vote  ceased,  the  landlord  began  to  regard 
them  as  a  nuisance,  and  employed  all  means,  fair  and  foul,  to 
get  rid  of  them.  The  worm,  when  trodden  on,  turned  on  its 
aggressor,  the  result  being  the  dreadful  cry,  Exterminate  the 
Landlords,  which  is  echoing  at  the  moment  through  Ireland 
and  America,  and  which  proceeds,  for  the  most  part,  from  the 
evicted,  and  the  descendants  of  the  evicted.  Abyssus  abyssum 
invocat. 


372  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO; 


In  the  year  1798,  took  place  the  latest  of  the  many  battles 
which  have  been  fought,  from  time  to  time,  within  the  limits  of 
the  county,  that  of  Carricknagat,  as  it  is  locally  called,  or 
Collooney,  as  it  is  usually  named  by  persons  living  at  a  distance. 
The  French  landed  at  Killalla,  on  the  22nd  of  August,  under 
the  command  of  Humbert,  and  from  that  day,  till  after  their 
surrender  to  Lord  Cornwallis,  at  Ballinamuck,  on  the  9th  of 
September,  nothing  was  talked  of,  or  thought  of,  through  the 
country,  except  their  movements  and  designs.  From  their 
arrival  they  kept  calling  on  the  people  to  join  them,  but  the 
people,  at  least  those  of  the  county  Sligo,  were  loath  to  respond 
to  the  call,  being  held  back  by  the  advice  of  the  clergy,  who 
expected  no  good  from  the  intervention  of  men  whose  hands 
were  still  reeking  with  the  blood  of  the  holiest  priests  and 
purest  patriots  of  France.  If  left  to  themselves,  our  young  men 
would  have  rallied  at  once  to  the  French  eagles,  as  one  fact, 
out  of  many,  which  might  be  quoted,  sufficiently  shows.  A 
night  or  two  after  the  landing  at  Killalla,  about  three  hundred 
young  fellows  of  the  parishes  of  Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet, 
assembled  at  Killasser,  near  Annaghmore,  and  entered  into  an 
engagement  to  proceed  in  a  few  days  to  the  French  camp  ;  but, 
after  they  took  the  advice  of  their  priests,  and  thought  better  of 
the  matter,  the  three  hundred  dwindled  down  to  three  indi- 
viduals, who,  of  all  that  were  assembled  at  Killasser,  were  the 
only  persons  to  carry  out  the  engagement. 

Having  completed  his  arrangements,  Humbert  set  out,  on 
the  26th  August,  with  his  countrymen,  and  a  large  Irish  con- 
tingent, for  the  interior  of  the  country.  His  first  meeting  with 
the  English  took  place  the  following  morning,  at  Castlebar, 
when  their  army,  though  three  or  four  times  as  numerous  as 
the  French,  and  sustained  by  fourteen  cannon,  yielded  to  some 
unaccountable  panic,  and  fled  from  their  position  so  shamefully 
and  precipitately,  that  the  movement  has  been  called,  in  sarcasm, 
the  Castlebar  Races. 

The  French  met  with  no  other  obstacle  worth  mention,  till 
they  had  crossed  the  bridge  of  Collooney,  to  the  Leyney  side, 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  373 


where  they  thought  themselves  so  secure,  that  they  halted  for 
breakfast ;  hut  they  had  hardly  begun  the  meal,  when  a  cannon 
ball,  from  the  direction  of  Carricknagat,  fell  in  the  midst  of 
them,  and  proved  they  were  already  in  the  presence  of  the 
enemy. 

The  shot  came  from  some  British  troops,  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Yereker,  who,  happening  to  be  in  garrison  at  Sligo, 
and  learning  that  the  French  were  marching  in  great  numbers 
on  the  town,  went  out  like  a  brave  man  to  meet  them,  instead 
of  falling  back  on  Enniskillen,  as  advised  by  all,  and  ordered,  it 
is  said,  by  his  superiors  in  command.  So  effective  and  secret 
were  his  movements,  that  before  Humbert  was  aware  of  his  pre- 
sence, he  had  all  his  dispositions  for  a  battle  made — had  posted 
his  main  body  near  the  present  railway  signal  station,  where 
they  were  concealed  and  protected  by  the  inequalities  of  the 
ground  ;  had  placed  a  detachment  under  Major  Ormsby,  on  the 
hill,  at  the  railway  bridge,  so  as  to  be  able  to  sweep  the  road  by 
which  the  French  had  to  advance  ;  and  had  secured  his  left  by  a 
few  picked  men,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Gough — this  wing 
being  protected  also  by  the  river. 

Though  unprepared  for  the  encounter,  Humbert  had  his  troops 
so  well  in  hand,  that  he  was  ready  for  advance,  in  a  few  minutes, 
with  all  his  force,  which  was  900  French  and  somewhat  more 
than  a  thousand  Irish  recruits.  The  action,  which  began  at 
two  o'clock,  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half,  and  was  fought  with  great 
spirit  on  both  sides.  The  French  opened  the  attack,  which 
they  made  in  two  columns — one,  the  main  body,  moving  straight 
down  through  Rinn  on  Yereker  ;  and  the  other,  after  making  a 
detour,  crossing  the  river  at  Knockbeg  ford,  passing  up  the 
Ardcotton  glebe,  and  proceeding  through  the  valley  which 
separates  the  hill  on  which  Major  Ormsby  was  posted,  from  the 
cliffs  of  the  Ox  mountains.  It  was  this  column  that  decided 
the  contest ;  for  Major  Ormsby,  finding  they  were  surrounding 
his  own  men,  and  on  the  point  of  taking  the  main  body  of  the 
British  in  flank,  withdrew  towards  the  centre,  when  Yereker, 
realizing  the  danger,  ordered  a  retreat  across  the  river,  which 


874  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


was  executed  in  excellent  order,  though  the  French  followed  for 
a  mile  or  two. 

While  all  acquitted  themselves  creditably  in  this  engage- 
ment, it  is  admitted  that  Colonel  Vereker  on  the  one  side,  and 
Bartholomew  Teeling  on  the  other,  carried  off  the  chief  honours 
of  the  day.-  Vereker  is  praised  for  his  spirit  in  measuring 
swords  with  the  French,  whose  army  was  three  or  four  times  as 
numerous  as  his  own,  and  flushed  too  with  the  great  victory  of 
Castlebar ;  for  his  consummate  skill  in  choosing  the  site  of  the 
engagement — the  best  in  the  county  for  his  purpose — and  in 
arranging  his  troops,  so  as  to  turn  all  the  advantages  of  the 
situation  to  the  best  account;  for  the  readiness  of  resource, 
•with  which,  during  the  battle  he  met  and  defeated  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  the  measures  of  the  experienced  French  tacticians  ; 
for  the  opportuneness  with  which  he  timed  the  retreat,  and  the 
coolness  with  which  he  superintended  it,  being  himself  among 
the  last  to  cross  the  river;  and,  in  fine  and  in  sum,  for  his  un- 
doubted success  in  destroying  the  prestige  of  the  French, 
counteracting  their  designs  on  Sligo,  and  forcing  them  to  the 
route  which  led  to  their  surrender,  a  few  days  later,  at  Ballina- 
muck. 

On  the  other  side,  Bartholomew  Teeling  bore  off  the  palm 
from  all,  both  French  and  Irish.  He  was  a  young  man  of  rare 
endowments,  both  of  mind  and  body ;  and  betaking  himself  to 
France,  when  the  expedition  for  Ireland  was  organising,  he 
offered  his  valuable  services  to  Humbert,  and  cast  in  his  lot 
with  men  whom  he  believed  to  be  engaged  in  an  effort  to  benefit 
his  country.  The  French  gave  him  all  their  confidence,  which 
he  justified  by  serving  as  interpreter  and  negotiator,  by  manag- 
ing the  Irish,  over  whom  he  acquired  unbounded  influence,  and 
by  being  always  foremost  to  encounter  every  danger  which 
presented  itself,  as  at  Castlebar,  where  he  greatly  distinguished 
himself. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  conflict  at  Carricknagat,  he  was 
the  soul  of  the  movement,  and  eclipsed  all  his  comrades  ;  but 
towards  the  close,  he  eclipsed  even  himself  by  a  feat  which 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  375 


might  appear  incredible,  if  the  evidence  of  its  performance  was 
not  overwhelming.  Finding  the  French  advance  arrested  by  a 
cannon,  which  was  placed  on  Park's  Hill,  under  an  able  gunner, 
named  Whitters,  and  which  had  already  struck  down  several 
men  in  the  front  of  the  column,  he  called  again  and  again  on 
those  about  him  to  advance,  but  meeting  no  response,  he  set 
spurs  to  a  noble  grey  charger,  on  which  he  rode,  galloped  down 
a  long  stretch  of  level  grass  land,  which  still  separated  the  con- 
tending forces,  and  pulling  up  at  Park's  Hill,  and  drawing  coolly 
a  pistol  from  its  holster,  shot  dead  the  formidable  Whitters 
behind  his  cannon ;  moving  back,  next  moment,  amid  a  shower 
of  bullets,  as  unconcerned  and  as  safe  as  one  of  Homer's  heroes 
in  the  hands  of  a  tutelary  goddess.  This  episode  decided  the 
battle ;  for,  when  Teeling  now  called  on  the  men  in  the  column 
to  follow  him,  they  sprang  forward  to  a  man,  and  swept  every- 
thing before  them.  Teeling's  disposal  of  Whitters  is  almost  the 
only  incident  of  the  engagement  now  remembered  in  the 
neighbourhood.  Even  the  names  of  Vereker  and  Humbert 
have  slipped  from  the  people's  memories,  but  Teeling  and  his 
famous  grey,  are  still  as  vivid  in  the  traditions  of  the  Ox 
mountains,  as  they  were  on  the  morrow  of  Carricknagat. 

Honours  of  all  kinds  were  now  showered  on  Colonel  Vereker. 
Parliament  voted  him  its  thanks ;  George  III.  granted  him  the 
privilege  of  having  supporters  in  his  arms,  and  adopting  the 
motto,  "Coloony;"  the  Corporation  of  Dublin  conferred  on  him 
the  freedom  of  the  city ;  while  the  Corporation  of  Limerick 
named  the  street  leading  to  his  residence  Coloony  Street, 
voted  him  a  sword  of  honour,  and  passed  the  following  resolu- 
tion of  thanks  to  him  and  his  regiment : — Resolved :  "  That  the 
steady,  loyal,  and  gallant  conduct  of  our  fellow  citizens  of  the 
Limerick  City  Regiment  of  Militia,  on  the  5th  September  last, 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Yereker,  so  intrepidly  engaged 
and  successfully  opposed  the  progress  of  the  whole  French  and 
rebel  army  at  Coloony,  merits  our  sincerest  thanks  and  warmest 
applause ;  a  conduct  which  has  not  only  covered  them  as  a 
regiment  with  eternal  honour,  but  has  also  cast  an  additional 


376  HISTOKY  OF   SLIGO. 


lustre  on  this  their  native  city,  already  so  eminently  distin- 
guished for  its  loyalty  and  zeal  for  our  happy  constitution." 
Among  other  compliments  that  he  received  on  this  occasion, 
was  an  address  from  the  High  Sheriff  and  Grand  Jury  of  the 
county  Sligo,  which  may  be  found  in  the  Dublin  Evening  Post, 
of  the  28th  October,  1798. 

About  twelve  months  after  the  battle,  when  things  had  settled 
down,  magistrates  were  appointed  by  royal  warrant  to  investi- 
gate the  claims  for  compensation  preferred  by  those'who  alleged 
that  they  had  suffered  from  the  French  or  Insurgents,  and  who 
got,  in  consequence,  the  name  of  "suffering  loyalists."  The 
magistrates  entrusted  with  this  delicate  office  were  : — 

WILLIAM  HARLOE  PHIBBS,  ESQ. 
ARTHUR  IRWIN,  ESQ. 
REV.  CHARLES  WEST. 
REV.  CARNECROSS  CULLEN. 
REV.  W.  DUKE. 

And  they  held  their  first  meeting  on  the  30th  September,  1799. 
The  routine  was  to  read  the  claim,  to  examine  the  claimant 
or  his  witness  on  oath,  and  to  admit,  reject,  or  modify,  the 
application  as  they  judged  fit.  If  they  admitted  the  claim, 
either  in  whole  or  in  part,  they  gave  a  certificate  for  the  amount ; 
and  if  they  rejected  it,  they  gave  their  reason  for  doing  so,  such 
as,  that  the  claimant  was  not  a  loyalist,  that  they  did  not  believe 
he  had  suffered  for  his  loyalty,  or  that  he  was  not  furnished  with 
a  certificate  of  good  conduct  from  the  "  resident  clergyman  "  or 
parson.  For  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  second  name  on  the 
list,  which  was  that  of  James  Dunleavy,  of  Ballygauley,  who 
was,  apparently,  the  grandfather  of  Dean  Dunleavy,  of  Sligo, 
their  memorandum  is,  "After  examining  James  Dunleavy  and 
his  son,  Morgan  Dunleavy  on  oath,  claim  rejected,  himself  being 
a  disaffected  person,  and  not  having  proved  his  claim." 

As  might  be  expected,  the  applications  came  from  the  more 
disturbed  districts  of  the  county,  which  lay  in  the  baronies  of 
Tirerrill,  Leyney,  and  Tireragh.  There  was  no  claim  from 
Coolavin,  and  only  one  from  Carbury,  that  of  Roger  Smith, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  377 


Sligo,  for  £96  17s.  9d.,  probably  for  losses  sustained  in  one 
of  tbe  disturbed  baronies.  Naturally  Collooney,  so  close  to 
Carricknagat,  must  have  suffered  more,  in  proportion  to  popula- 
tion, than  other  places ;  and  the  following  nine  names  of 
Collooney  people,  with  the  amount  of  compensation  awarded 
to  each,  may  serve  as  a  sample  of  the  list : — 

MARY  FARRELL,        Collooney    -  £18    0    9 

ROBERT  KIVLEGHAN,  ,,  -  410 

ROBERT  McKIM,  ,,  -  72  19  10 

JOHN  LOWE,  „  -  31  12    0 

JAMES   CONELLY,  „  -  20    0    6 

JOHN  CONELLY,  „  -  776 

WILLIAM  HOPS,  „  -  30    0    0 

WINIFRED  DOHERTY,  ,,  -  3  19    1J 

WILLIAM  FOSTER,  „  -  39    0    0 

It  need  hardly  be  added,  that  some  claimants  exaggerated 
their  losses.  Take  the  case  of  James  Wood,  Esq.,  of  Leekfield, 
who  claimed  £98  19s.  7d.,  but  received  only  £26  19s.  7d., 
though  it  is  clear,  from  the  following  minute  of  the  magistrates, 
that  they  were  disposed  to  deal  tenderly  with  him : — "  Upon 
examining  the  claim  of  James  Wood,  we  are  of  opinion  that  he 
has  fully  proved  his  claim  to  the  amount  of  £26  19s.  7d.,  after 
deducting  for  cows  £72." 

The  whole  list,  which  comprises  197  claims,  with  awards  to 
the  amount  of  £3,887  5s.  3d.,  throws  considerable  light  on  the 
state  of  the  county  ninety  years  ago,  and  is  therefore  given  in 
the  Appendix,  being  printed  now  for  the  first  time. 

In  1820  a  PUBLIC  INQUIRY  was  held  in  Sligo,  which  deserves 
some  notice,  as  it  created  great  excitement  in  the  town  at  the 
time,  and  is  not  devoid  of  interest  in  other  respects  as  well.  It 
arose  from  a  quarrel  between  the  merchants  of  Sligo  and  the 
Collector  of  the  Port,  Mr.  Robert  Holmes,  who  had  a  low  opinion 
of  each  other,  the  Collector  charging  the  merchants  with 
smuggling,  and  the  merchants  retorting  on  the  Collector  with 
the  four  following  charges  : — 

First — Procuring  his  situation  by  purchase  contrary  to  the 
express  provisions  of  an  Act  of  Parliament. 


378  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Second — Tampering  with  a  superior  officer  to  induce  him  to 
dispense  with  the  oath  required  by  the  law  to  secure  against  the 
corrupt  procurement  of  office. 

Third — The  abuse  of  power  in  office,  both  as  it  regards  the 
subject  and  the  Crown. 

Fourth — Unprovoked  attacks  on  the  character  of  the  mer- 
chants. 

The  public  authorities  acceded  to  the  application  of  the 
merchants  for  an  investigation  of  these  charges,  and  deputed 
Paul  Dawson,  Esq.,  Surveyor-General  of  Customs,  to  preside  at 
the  inquiry,  which,  after  an  arrangement  of  preliminaries,  was 
opened  at  the  Custom  House,  on  the  21st  of  April,  and  lasted  to 
the  26th  of  June.  The  merchants  appointed  five  of  their  num- 
ber— William  Hume,  Alexander  Cochrane,  William  Kelly, 
Martin  Madden,  and  John  Black — a  committee  of  management 
to  prosecute  the  case,  and  Mr.  Holmes  conducted  his  own 
defence:  Most  of  the  merchants  sided  with  the  prosecution ; 
some  stood  by  Holmes ;  and  a  few  held  aloof  from  both  sides — 
notably  Mr.  Abraham  Martin  and  Mr.  Ignatius  Everard,  the 
two  most  respected  traders  of  the  town.  The  managers  acquitted 
themselves  of  their  part  with  great  distinction,  and  the  defence 
was  maintained  with  conspicuous  spirit  and  ability  by  Mr. 
Holmes,  who  was  powerfully  aided  in  his  contentions  by  the 
evidence  of  one  of  his  witnesses,  Mr.  William  Middleton,  mer- 
chant and  ship-broker,  the  only  one  of  all  the  merchants  of  that 
day  that  is  now  represented  in  the  mercantile  community  of 
Sligo  by  descendants. 

A  report  of  the  proceedings  at  the  inquiry  was  printed  under 
the  title  :  "A  Report  of  the  Proceedings  at  a  Public  Investiga- 
tion before  a  Surveyor-General  of  Customs,  into  certain  charges 
preferred  by  the  merchants  of  Sligo  against  Richard  Holmes, 
Esq.,  then  Collector  of  that  port,  as  taken  from  the  notes  of  a 
shorthand  writer,  with  Extracts  of  the  Original  Correspondence 
on  the  subject  of  those  charges.  Printed  for  the  Committee  by 
Edward  Duffy,  Enniskillen,  1821."  Those  who  read  this  report 
attentively  can  hardly  fail  to  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  379 


were  faults  on  both  sides — that  Holmes,  in  his  proceedings,  had 
often  his  own  interests  more  in  view  than  those  either  of  the 
public  or  the  Crown,  and  that  the  merchants,  on  their  side, 
were  far  from  being  as  immaculate  as  they  would  have  others 
believe. 

The  Lords  of  the  Treasury  must  have  taken  the  charges 
against  the  Collector  to  be  proved,  as,  on  the  reception  of  Mr. 
Dawson's  report,  they  issued  an  order  for  his  suspension,  and 
called  on  him  to  show  cause  why  he  should  not  he  dismissed  ;  at 
the  same  time  they  dismissed  his  [son,  who  was  pro-collector, 
and  a  Mr.  Caithness,  who  was  his  clerk ;  and  after  a  short  delay 
they  appointed  Mr.  Owen  Wynne  Collector  of  the  Port  in  his 
stead. 

It  was  well  for  the  merchants  that  they  were  not  on  their  trial, 
for,  judging  by  facts  which  came  casually  to  light  during  the 
investigation,  some  of  them  would  have  come  ill  through  the 
ordeal.  It  was  clear  there  was  extensive  smuggling;  for  it 
transpired  that  trading  vessels,  on  entering  the  bay,  sometimes 
despatched  boats,  on  mysterious  errands,  to  the  shores  of 
Tireragh  or  Carbury  ;  that  tobacco  was  landed  at  Raghly  and 
the  Bosses ;  that  several  bales  of  the  commodity  were  discovered 
at  a  place  called  Lugadoon  in  Tireragh ;  and  that  large  quanti- 
ties of  it  were  found  made  up  in  rosin  casks,  on  board  the 
Juno. 

While  three  or  four  of  the  merchants  were  suspected  of 
having  a  hand  in  those  contraband  proceedings,  Mr.  John  Black 
got  credit  for  being  engaged  in  the  business  on  an  exceptionally 
large  scale.  His  neighbours  of  the  Rosses  believed  that  the  lime- 
stone caves  on  the  brink  of  the  sea  at  Bomore  served  as  a  depot 
for  the  ill-gotten  goods  ;  and  some  imaginative  persons  convinced 
themselves  that  a  tunnel  ran,  under  the  hills,  all  the  way  from 
the  caves  to  Elsinore  Lodge,  through  which  Black  usually 
moved  his  dangerous  wares. 

Sligo  suffered  more  than  any  other  town  in  the  kingdom  from 
the  first  visitation  of  CHOLEKA,  which  occurred  in  the  year  1832. 
The  inhabitants,  knowing  that  the  disease  had  been  ravaging 


380  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Dublin  and  other  places  from  the  month  of  April,  and  finding 
it  month  after  month  keeping  away  from  themselves,  were 
hoping  they  would  escape  it  altogether,  when  unmistakeable 
cases  occurred  on  the  eleventh  of  August,  which  fell  on  a 
Saturday,  and  was  a  fair,  as  well  as  a  market,  day.  In  the  morn- 
ing there  was  a  frightful  thunderstorm,  which  the  people 
regarded  as  a  forerunner  of  the  dreadful  cholera,  and  as  the  day 
advanced, they  learned  that  the  cholera  was  already  in  their  midst. 

It  was  an  unfortunate  circumstance,  that  when  the  pestilence 
set  in,  the  lower  classes  had  lost  confidence  in  the  doctors  of  the 
town.  From  the  arrival  of  the  cholera  in  Ireland,  the  Sligo 
doctors  employed  themselves  in  studying  its  character,  and  in 
preparing  for  it ;  and,  with  this  object,  they  sent  up  kites  in 
search  of  some  indication,  whether  it  was  or  was  not  of  atmos- 
pheric origin ;  they  analysed  the  waters  of  the  wells ;  they 
examined  the  sanitary  state  of  private  houses  and  their  sur- 
roundings ;  and  they  pointed  out  the  regimen  to  be  followed,  in 
order,  if  possible,  to  avert  the  threatened  calamity.  These  pro- 
ceedings were  viewed  with  suspicion  by  many  ignorant  people, 
who  when  the  disease  appeared,  persuaded  themselves  that 
it  was  all  the  work  of  the  doctors — who  had  brought  the  con- 
tagion down  from  the  sky  by  their  kites  ;  who  had  started  it  by 
poisoning  the  wells;  who  had  spread  it  by  the  drugs  and 
nostrums  which  the  people  were  recommended  to  use  as  a  pre- 
ventive. Absurd  as  these  notions  were,  they  held  their  ground 
for  a  time,  and  were  not  relinquished  by  many,  even  after  the 
doctors  had  fallen  victims  to  their  martyr-like  devotion  to 
duty. 

From  the  first,  the  disease  raged  with  great  violence  in  Sligo. 
In  the  Daily  Report  of  Cholera,  published  by  the  Central 
Board  of  Health,  in  Dublin  Castle,  Sligo  appears,  for  the  first 
time,  on  the  18th  of  August,  the  return,  then  given,  being 
sixty-three  new  cases,  twenty-two  deaths,  and  no  recovery. 
From  this  date  it  went  on  increasing  through  the  whole  of 
August,  and  at  such  a  rate  that,  on  an  average,  fifty  a  day  were 
<lying,  as  many,  it  is  said,  as  a  hundred  dying  on  one  particular 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  381 


day.  In  giving  the  figures  for  all  Ireland  at  this  time,  the 
Daily  Report,  while  noting  that  the  disease  was  stationary,  or 
on  the  decline  in  other  places,  had  always  to  add  the  words, 
"  with  the  exception  of  Sligo,"  or,  as  the  Lublin  Evening  Post 
of  the  date  phrased  it,  "  with  the  horrible  exception  of  Sligo." 

Medical  Inspectors  who  had  been  to  other  cholera  centres, 
were  astonished  at  what  they  found  before  them  in  Sligo.  The 
closed  shops  and  doors  ;  the  complete  suspension  of  business ; 
the  entire  absence  of  people  from  the  streets,  except  where  an 
individual  might  be  hastening  silently  for  a  doctor  or  a  priest ; 
the  death-like  silence  that  prevailed,  broken  only  by  the  rum- 
bling of  the  ponderous  vehicle  which  conveyed  the  infected  to 
the  hospital,  or  by  the  ominous  noise  caused  by  twenty 
carpenters  hammering  at  the  making  of  coffins  in  the  court- 
house, then  converted  into  a  workshop — diffused  such  terror 
around,  that  people  seldom  felt  able,  or  inclined,  even  to  speak.* 
The  twenty  carpenters  soon  proving  unable  to  supply  the 
demand  for  coffins,  most  of  the  dead  were  rolled  into  pitched 
sheets,  and  thus  dropped  into  the  grave  ;  and  it  is  a  noteworthy 
fact,  that  the  prospect  of  the  "pitched  sheet"  had  as  much 
horror  almost  for  the  dying  as  death  itself,  and  that  the  last 
words  of  several  were,  "  Oh  !  the  horrible  pitched  sheet." 

Stories  are  handed  down  of  buryings  alive,  but  they  are  not 
sufficiently  authenticated  for  detailed  mention  here,  though  it 
is  certain  there  must  have  been  such  cases.  There  was  such 
haste  to  hurry  away  the  dead,  that  the  moment  it  went  abroad 
that  a  person  was  taken  ill,  a  hearse  or  dray  hastened  to  the 
place  to  carry  off  the  corpse.  "  I  was  sent  for  specially,"  writes 
a  Government  doctor,  "  to  see  a  person  who  laboured  only  under 
the  premonitory  symptoms.  On  my  arrival  the  hearse  was  at 
the  door,  waiting  to  carry  him  to  interment."  It  is  told,  that 
a  countryman  who  had  caught  the  infection,  as  he  was  mounting 

*  To  illustrate  the  personal  eccentricities  which  great  crises  sometimes 
develop,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  a  blacksmith  of  the  town,  named  Hatley, 
passed  much  of  his  time,  night  and  day,  in  roaming  through  the  streets,  singing 
joyfully  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 


382  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


his  horse  at  the  foot  of  Knox's  Street,  fell  down  dead  on  reach- 
ing the  head  of  Market  Street.  Everybody,  that  could  quit 
the  town,  left.  The  population,  which  at  the  beginning  is  set 
down  as  15,000,  fell  soon  so  far  away,  that  a  letter  from  Sligo, 
which  appears  in  the  Evening  Post  of  the  26th  August,  states 
"  the  present  population  does  not  exceed  2,000." 

Nothing  proves  better  the  extent  of  the  panic  and  of  the  ensuing 
demoralization,  than  the  callousness  which  it  developed,  to  the 
strongest  and  most  sacred  feelings  which  sway  the  human 
breast.  Parental  affection  seemed  gone,  as  children  deserted  by 
terror  stricken  parents  mingled  in  large  numbers,  with  the 
widows  and  orphans  left  by  husbands  and  fathers  who  had 
perished  in  the  pestilence.  So  great  a  sensation  did  this  state 
of  things  create,  wherever  it  became  known,  that  the  charitable 
of  Dublin,  in  the  midst  of  all  their  local  calls  and  necessities, 
had  a  collection  made  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and  orphans 
and  deserted  children  of  unfortunate  Sligo. 

Though  hard  drinkers  and  the  very  poor  suffered  most,  no 
class  of  the  inhabitants  escaped.  The  temperate  and  well-to-do 
succumbed  as  well  as  others;  and  the  death  of  Mr.  Patrick 
O'Connor,  a  leading  merchant,  and  a  gentleman  of  most  regular 
and  exemplary  life,  proved  that  neither  position  nor  regularity 
of  conduct  could  ensure  exemption  from  attack.  No  class,  in  pro- 
portion to  numbers,  suffered  so  much  as  the  doctors,  which  must 
be  ascribed  to  their  constant  contact  with  the  plague-stricken. 
Surgeon  Bell,  Doctors  Coyne,  Beatty,  and  Anderson,  as  well  as 
a  medical  man  from  Dublin,  fell  one  after  another  in  the  heroic 
performance  of  their  duty. 

The  Catholic  clergy  alone  seemed  to  have  a  charmed 
life,  and  to  be  proof  against  the  contagion,  for,  though 
as  often  with  the  sick  as  the  doctors  themselves,  not  one 
of  them  caught  the  infection.  Father  Gilleran's  case  was 
still  more  remarkable  than  that  of  his  brethren ;  for  while  they 
lived  in  their  private  houses  or  lodgings,  he  passed  most  of  his 
time,  night  and  day,  in  the  hospital  among  the  sick,  performing 
the  offices  both  of  a  nurse  and  of  a  priest.  A  curate  in  Sooey, 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  383 


when  the  cholera  broke  out  in  Sligo,  he  offered  himself  to  the 
bishop  as  a  volunteer  for  Sligo,  and  the  offer  being  accepted,  he 
flew  to  the  post  of  duty  and  danger,  and  all  through  the  crisis, 
turned  up  always  wherever  and  whenever  he  was  wanted,  as 
regularly  as  if  he  had  the  faculty  of  being  in  several  places  at 
the  same  time,  and  as  intrepidly  as  if  he  had  had  a  revelation 
from  heaven  that  the  cholera  could  do  him  no  hurt. 

This  satisfactory  state  of  things,  in  regard  to  the  clergy,  was 
owing  very  much  to  the  benevolent  and  noble  hearted  bishop  of 
Elphin  of  that  day,  the  Right  Reverend  Patrick  Burke.  This 
good  man  remained  throughout  at  his  house  in  Finisklin,  that 
he  might  be  always  at  hand  to  sustain  and  cheer  both  priests 
and  people.  While  panic  fear  confined  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town  to  their  houses,  he  rode  occasionally  through  the  streets  in 
order  to  inspire  the  timid  with  courage  by  his  example;  he  visited 
from  time  to  time,  both  in  private  houses  and  in  the  hospital, 
those  who  were  struck  down  by  the  pestilence ;  and,  above  all, 
he  took  care  to  make  the  priests  of  the  town  pass  the  evening 
with  him  as  often  as  they  could,  when  he  thanked  them  and 
blessed  them  for  their  heroic  labours,  and  urged  them  on  to  con- 
tinued exertions  in  the  God-like  cause  in  which  they  were  engaged. 

Nor  was  it  the  Sligo  priests  alone  whom  he  thus  tempered  for 
the  dread  ordeal  of  the  moment.  Knowing  Ballysadare  to 
be  tried  by  the  visitation  as  severely  as  Sligo  itself,  and 
the  priests  of  that  parish  to  be  overwhelmed  with  work,  he 
induced  them  by  friendly  pressure,  to  come  now  and  again  to 
Finisklin,  and  join  there  himself  and  his  priests  in  unbending 
the  mind ;  and  the  writer  is  glad  to  have  this  opportunity  of 
recording,  what  he  often  heard  from  Right  Reverend  Doctor 
Durcan  and  Father  Michael  Flynn,  the  then  parish  priest  and 
curate  of  Ballysadare,  that  they  derived  the  greatest  comfort 
and  strength  from  these  meetings,  and  were  moved  by  the  words 
of  the  genial  bishop,  much  in  the  same  way  as  the  disciples  of 
our  Lord  felt  "the  heart  burning  within  them/'  while  He  spoke 
to  them  on  the  road  to  Emmaus. 

The  total  number  of  recorded  cases  for  Sligo  is  1,234,  and  of 


384  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


deaths  643;  but  it  is  certain,  that  many  cases  and  deaths 
occurred  of  which  there  is  no  record.  We  read  in  the  Evening 
Post,  of  September  the  4th,  "  Sligo,  out  of  a  population  of  not 
more  than  4,000,  which  remained  in  the  town,  has  lost  600  ;" 
and  the  evil  lasted  for  more  than  a  month  from  this  date ;  nor 
was  Sligo  dropped  from  the  Daily  Cholera  Report  of  Dublin 
Castle,  till  the  16th  of  October,  which  shows  that  the  disease 
had  not  quite  disappeared  earlier  from  the  town,  however  much 
it  may  have  diminished. 

The  virus  must  have  been  more  malignant  during  the  first 
three  or  four  weeks  than  afterwards,  as  the  recoveries  were 
fewer,  and  the  fatal  termination  more  rapid.  In  the  first  official 
record,  as  we  have  seen,  there  was  not  a  single  recovery,  though 
the  cases  were  63,  and  the  deaths  22 ;  while,  at  this  early  period, 
the  catastrophe  always  followed  fast  on  the  attack.  Mr.  O'Connor 
was  well  when  he  went,  in  the  morning,  to  the  funeral  of  a 
clerk  of  his,  a  Mr.  Garvey,  and,  being  attacked  while  assisting 
at  the  interment,  was  dead  that  evening.  It  was  said,  that  fear 
was  the  chief  predisposing  cause  of  the  disease,  but  courageous 
people  were  struck  down  as  well  as  the  timid.  Mr.  William 
Middleton  visited  Mr.  Peter  O'Connor,  on  Mr.  Pat  O'Connor's 
death,  and  said  to  him,  "  Have  no  fear,  Peter,  for  fear  is 
cholera;  "  and  the  next  thing  Mr.  O'Connor  heard  of  his  bold- 
spirited  friend,  was  that  he  too  had  been  attacked,  and  was 
already  dead  and  buried. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

STREETS  AND  HOUSES. 

HAVING  been  informed  in  the  preceding  pages  of  the  shabbiness 
of  the  town  in  the  last  century,  this  may  be  the  best  place  to 
take  a  view  of  it  in  its  present  state. 

To  one  looking  from  the  higher  parts  of  the  Albert  Road,  Sligo 
seems  a  mere  congeries  of  houses,  or  rather  of  house  roofs,  with 
here  and  there  a  tower,  spire,  or  tall  factory  chimney  shaft, 
rising  high  above  the  surrounding  structures.  While  the  town 
itself,  from  the  point  of  view  indicated,  appears  an  undistinguish- 
able  mass,  there  are  on  either  side  of  it — to  the  right  and  left — 
a  few  detached,  imposing  structures,  which  look  like  wings 
opening  from  it,  and  add  greatly  to  its  appearance.  The  Mercy 
convent,  the  jail,  the  infirmary,  the  fever  hospital,  and  the 
lunatic  asylum,  on  the  right,  form  one  wing ;  while  the  cathedral, 
St.  Mary's,  and  one  or  two  houses  more  on  the  left,  form  the 
other.  The  convent,  infirmary,  fever  hospital,  and  lunatic 
asylum,  have  one  fine  feature  in  common — a  long,  extended, 
symmetrical,  southern  fa9ade,  so  constructed  in  each  case  as  to 
realize  in  the  best  manner  all  the  benefits  of  sun  and  air,  thus 
showing  that  the  builders  proceeded  on  hygienic  as  well  as  on 
artistic  lines.  The  jail,  as  intended  for  criminals,  stands,  in 
accordance  with  the  fitness  of  things,  on  a  much  lower  level  than 
the  institutions  designed  for  relieving  the  sufferings  of  the  well- 
behaved,  and,  surrounded  as  it  is  with  a  high,  heavy,  dead  wall, 
shutting  in  the  inmates,  and  shutting  out  much  of  the  light  of 
heaven,  suggests  the  dreary  fate  which  the  unfortunates  inside 
have  brought  upon  themselves. 

Viewed  from  the  Albert  Road,  the  left  wing  hardly  shows  to 
such  advantage  as  the  right.     The  cathedral,  when  viewed  from 
VOL.  I.  2  B 


38G  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


John  Street,  or  the  railway  station,  is  a  stately,  well-finished 
edifice,  but  looked  at  from  the  Albert  Road,  where  the  chief 
features  visible  are  the  campanile,  the  upper  part  of  the  tower, 
and  the  south  transept,  it  strikes  one  as  somewhat  plain  and 
heavy.  St.  Mary's  is  so  massive  a  building  that  it  looks  not 
unlike  a  public  institution  of  some  kind.  Considering  its  desti- 
nation, it  needed  of  course,  to  be  spacious,  but  one  can  hardly 
help  thinking  that  if  it  were  constructed  on  less  crowded  and 
more  varied  lines,  diminished  somewhat  in  height,  extended 
over  a  larger  area,  and  lightened  in  feature,  it  would  gain  not  a 
little  in  grace,  without  losing  anything  in  roominess,  wholesome- 
ness,  or  any  other  of  the  more  essential  qualities  of  a  residence. 
Mrs.  Tighe's  house,  which  shows  in  the  left  wing,  is  a  neat, 
comfortable  residence,  and  when  first  erected  by  its  worthy 
owner,  was  a  conspicuous  object  in  the  scene,  but  the  big  building 
now  near  it  greatly  overshadows  it,  like  the  man  in  Horace 
qui  pncegravat  artes  infra  se  positas. 

On  entering  and  examining  the  town  it  is  found  to  be  divided 
by  the  river  into  two  parts,  one  on  the  right  or  northern  bank, 
and  the  other  and  larger  part,  on  the  left  bank,  each  portion 
containing  good  streets.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  nomen- 
clature of  the  streets  is  comparatively  modern.  When  Henry 
Vaughan  and  Mr.  Brett,  in  1662  and  1663,  made  a  "  survey  "  of 
the  town  of  Sligo,  in  virtue  of  a  commission  under  the  Great 
Seal,  the  streets  had  no  distinctive  names :  the  district  of  the 
town  lying  to  the  north  of  the  river  being  called  the  Fort-hill 
Quarter,  and  that  lying  to  the  south,  the  Castle  Quarter,  and 
sometimes  the  New  Fort  Quarter.  Things  seem  to  have  been 
in  the  same  state  in  1666,  when  Charles  II.  granted  the  great 
O'Connor  estate  to  Lord  William  Strafford  and  Thomas  Rad- 
cliffe,  Esq.,  as  no  streets  are  named  in  the  grant ;  but  the  new 
nomenclature  was  introduced  on  or  before  the  year  1687,  for 
in  the  Deed  of  Partition,  executed  that  year  by  the  Right 
Honourable  William  Earl  of  Strafford,  Rev.  John  Leslie,  and 
Joshua  Wilson,  the  then  owners  of  the  estate,  the  following  streets 
are  mentioned  :— Castle  Street,  Old  Market  Street,  High  Street, 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  387 


Radcliffe  Street,  Key  Street,  Bridge  Street,  Holborn  Street, 
Stephen  Street,  St.  Johh's  Lane,  and  Church  Lane ;  the  other 
existing  streets  of  the  town  coming  later.  It  will  be  interesting 
to  know  whence  the  different  streets  derive  their  names. 

Castle  Street  has  its  name  from  Fitzgerald's  Castle,  which 
stood  where  Mr.  Tallant's  hotel  now  stands,  and  from  the  two 
so-called  castles  of  Sir  Roger  Jones  and  Andrew  Crean,  in  the 
same  neighbourhood ;  Old  Market  [Street,  which  ran  at  first 
between  High  Street  and  Radcliffe  Street,  was  so  called  from 
the  market  which  was  anciently  held  there  round  Bishop 
O'Crean's  Cross,  and  which,  later,  was  removed  to  the  rear  of  Pat 
O'Brien's  house  in  High  Street ;  High  Street,  from  its  elevated 
situation  in  regard  to  the  rest  of  the  town ;  Radcliffe  Street,  from 
Sir  George  Radcliffe,  and  his  son  Thomas  Radcliffe,  successively 
owners  of  a  great  part  of  Sligo ;  Key  Street,  which  ran  behind 
Mr.  Maveety's  house,  from  its  proximity  to  the  quay ;  Bridge 
Street,  or  the  present  Knox's  Street,  from  its  leading  to  the 
bridge,  the  change  of  name  being  effected  about  1784,  in  honour 
of  the  Knox  family  who  lived  there,  and  more  especially  of 
George  Knox,  chief  favourite  in  his  day  of  the  Town  Council ; 
Holborn  Street,  from  its  namesake  in  London,  which  it  resembles 
in  its  incline ;  Stephen  Street,  from  Edmund  Stephens,  who 
owned  in  his  day  much  house  property  in  Sligo,  as  well  as  some 
town  parks,  including  a  park  in  Fort-hill  quarter,  which  took  in 
the  area  of  Stephen  Street,  and  brought  the  owner  the  honour 
of  leaving  the  street  his  name;  St.  John's  Lane,  now  John 
Street,  from  its  leading  to  St.  John's  Church;  and  Church  Lane, 
from  leading,  higher  up,  from  Market  Street  and  High  Street  to 
the  same  church. 

As  to  the  other  streets  :  Temple  Street  was  so  called  in  com- 
pliment to  the  Temple  family,  who  owned  much  of  the  town ; 
Burton  Street,  from  Benjamin  Burton,  who  purchased,  in  1697, 
Lord  Stafford's  Sligo  estate;  Gore  Street,  from  Lady  Anne 
Gore,  who  was  married,  first,  to  Sir  Francis  Gore,  and  subse- 
quently to  Percy  Gethin,  Esq.,  and  who  was  the  daughter  of 
Captain  William  Parke,  and  niece  of  Sir  Roger  Jones ;  Corkran's 


388  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Mall,  from  Thomas  Corkran,  its  builder ;  Thomas  Street,  from 
Thomas,  the  Christian  name  of  this  Mr.  Corkran  ;  Gallows  Hill 
North,  and  Gallows  Hill  South,  from  the  executions  which  took 
place  in  these  quarters ;  Ropewalks,  from  the  manufacture  of 
ropes  carried  on  there  formerly ;  Wine  Street,  from  the  wine 
vaults  kept  there  hy  the  Bulteels,  who  lived  in  the  premises 
now  occupied  by  Messrs.  Robertson  and  Kells ;  William  Street, 
George's  Street,  Adelaide  Street,  Charles  Street,  Albert  Street, 
Albert  Road,  Victoria  Road,  from  members,  for  the  most  part, 
of  the  royal  family  of  England ;  Vernon  Street,  Gethin  Street, 
Armstrong  Row,  Walker's  Row,  Lynn's  Place,  from  well-known 
local  families. 

The  public  buildings  of  the  town  are  not  unworthy  of  its 
beautiful  environs.  To  begin  with,  the  cathedral  is  a  massive 
structure,  and,  thanks  to  the  builder,  Mr.  Joseph  Clarence,  of 
Ballysadare,  as  solid  a  piece  of  masonry  as  there  is  in  the 
kingdom.  It  is  in  the  Romanesque  style,  and  presents,  externally, 
a  lofty  tower  with  a  plain  campanile  (little  liked  by  either 
connoisseurs  or  the  public),  a  bold  nave  and  transepts,  and  a 
rounded  east-end  or  apse.  Internally  there  is  a  vestibule  which 
leads  by  a  lofty  door  into  the  body  of  the  church  ;  a  nave  with 
a  single  aisle  on  either  side  ;  a  semicircular  chancel ;  and  a  Lady 
chapel  covered  with  a  vaulted  roof.  The  high  altar  with  its 
surmounting  gilt  canopy  is  an  imposing  object,  and,  striking  as 
it  is,  would  be  still  more  effective,  as  well  as  still  more  in  keep- 
ing with  the  Romanesque  style,  if,  like  the  canopy  of  Corinthian 
brass  which  towers  over  the  high  altar  of  St.  Peter's,  it  stood 
under  a  dome  instead  of  standing,  as  it  does,  under  a  groin. 
The  profusion  of  stained  glass  which  meets  the  eye  in  all  direc- 
tions around,  exhibits  the  decorations  and  furniture  of  the  church 
in  a  very  pleasing  light,  and,  in  a  light  not  less  pleasing,  the 
charity  of  the  diocese  of  Elphin,  as  each  window  in  the  large 
collection  is  the  personal  gift  of  some  devout  and  generous- 
diocesan. 

Like  the  cathedral,  the  court-house  is  a  well-built  structure, 
as  one  would  expect  from  the  high  character  of  the  builder,. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  389 


Mr.  Morris.  The  front  fa9ade,  almost  the  only  part  of  the  edifice 
visible  to  the  public,  is  so  broken  up  with  opes  of  various  kinds 
and  sizes,  as  to  leave  hardly  any  continuous  wall  for  the  eye  to 
rest  on.  It  is  a  pity  the  architect  did  not  treat  his  chimney 
shaft  in  a  different  way  from  that  adopted,  and  conceal  it, 
as  mediaeval  architects  knew  so  well  how  to  do,  in  some  orna- 
mental finial  or  other  feature;  for,  at  present,  the  curious  juxta- 
position of  the  spire  and  shaft  reminds  one  very  much  of  a  man 
with  his  back  to  a  fire-place  after  a  wetting.  The  design  is 
more  successful  in  the  accommodation  afforded — the  hall  in  front 
of  the  courts  being  spacious,  and  well  adapted  for  the  interviews 
between  clients  and  lawyers  which  so  often  take  place  there; 
the  courts  themselves,  while  well  aired  and  well  lighted  and 
•ordered  in  'accordance  with  the  principles  of  acoustics,  being 
conveniently  arranged  for  the  bench,  the  bar,  the  jury,  and  the 
public;  the  grand  jury  rooms  being  equal  to  anything  to  be 
found  elsewhere ;  and  the  apartments  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  various  county  officials — the  county  surveyor,  the  secretary 
of  the  grand  jury,  and  the  sub-sheriff — being  ample  and  com- 
modious. 

Sligo  seems  to  have  been  always  well  off  in  respect  to  its 
court-houses.  In  1778  John  Wesley  preached  in  what  he  calls 
the  "  old  court-house,"  which  he  describes  as  "  an  exceedingly 
spacious  building;  "  and  in  1785  he  preached  in  what  was  then 
known  as  the  "  new  court-house,"  with  the  proportions  and  style 
of  which  the  reader  is  well  acquainted,  as  it  is  the  one  that 
lasted  to  our  own  day  and  was  taken  down  to  make  room  for 
the  existing  structure. 

The  Sligo  court-house  suggests  a  word  or  two  regarding 
certain  other  courts  of  the  county.  Except  the  judges  of  assize, 
who  were  accompanied  in  the  olden  time,  both  out  of  court  and 
in  court,  with  greater  ceremonial  than  at  present,  the  official 
dispensers  of  justice  got  through  their  functions  in  a  rather 
rough  and  ready  fashion.  Previously  to  the  establishment  of 
Petty  Sessions,  which  occurred  about  1822,  and  in  which  pro- 
ceedings took  place  in  special  court-houses,  magistrates  heard 


390  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


and  decided  cases  at  their  private  residences,  generally  in  front 
of  their  hall  doors,  where  the  parties,  witnesses  and  friends, 
attended,  and  acted  their  respective  parts  with  a  volubility  of 
tongue  and  energy  of  action  so  stirring  as  to  render  the  scene 
sometimes  as  exciting  as  a  row  at  a  fair.  In  some  cases 
proceedings  were  sufficiently  decorous.  Of  Mr.  Wynne,  of 
Hazelwood,  for  instance,  "Wakefield  writes  (Vol.  II.,  p.  750)  : — 
"  The  litigants,  many  of  whom  come  from  the  mountains,  and 
cannot  speak  a  word  of  English,  make  known  their  case,  which 
is  often  some  trifling  quarrel,  through  the  medium  of  an 
interpreter.  In  general,  Mr.  Wynne  obliges  them  to  present  a 
written  narrative,  which  they  employ  some  schoolmaster  to 
draw  up.  So  numerous  are  the  suitors  sometimes,  and  so  eager 
to  be  heard,  that  it  is  difficult  to  preserve  order,  and  make  them 
attend  to  their  turn.  Were  it  not  established  as  an  invariable 
rule,  that  no  more  than  one  shall  speak  at  a  time,  so  unaccus- 
tomed are  these  uncivilized  mountaineers  to  regularity  and 
decorum,  that  the  accuser  and  the  accused,  with  the  whole  train 
of  witnesses,  would  be  haranguing  together,  in  their  wild  and 
uncouth  jargon,  intelligible  to  none  but  themselves  and  their 
interpreter." 

In  many  instances,  it  is  to  be  feared,  that  magistrates  were 
swayed  by  interest  or  other  unworthy  motives,  and  that  the 
merits  of  the  case  had  little  to  do  with  their  decision ;  for  there 
were,  in  those  days,  what  were  called  "trading  magistrates," 
that  is,  magistrates  who  made  a  livelihood  by  the  money  or 
money's  worth  which  they  received  as  bribes  for  their  decision. 
In  the  evidence  on  the  State  of  Ireland  given  before  the  Houses 
of  Parliament  in  1824  (pages  50-51,)  it  came  out  that  there 
were  Justices  of  the  Peace  who  had  no  other  visible  mode  of 
support  but  the  trade  they  carried  on  as  magistrates,  "  receiving 
presents  to  a  large  amount,  having  their  work  done  for  them, 
getting  presents  of  potatoes,  corn,  and  cattle,  and  presents  of 
money  too." 

The  Manor  courts  of  the  closing  years  of  the  last  century,  and 
the  first  twenty  or  thirty  years  of  the  present,  were  often  scenes 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  391 

of  disorder,  little  better,  indeed,  in  some  places,  than  drunken 
orgies.  The  Manor  court  was  generally  held  in  public-houses, 
where  spirituous  drinks  were  always  produced  by  the  litigants 
for  both  the  seneschal  and  the  jurors ;  an  entertainment  so 
indispensable  that  there  could  be  little  hope  of  a  verdict  without 
it ;  and,  as  at  the  present  day,  one  party  to  a  trial  always  tries 
to  have  an  attorney  on  his  side  if  the  other  party  has  one 
employed,  so,  in  the  days  of  the  Manor  courts,  one  side  took 
care  to  supply  the  court  with  as  much  whiskey  as  the  other,  in 
order  not  to  be  taken  at  a  disadvantage. 

The  Coroner's  court,  too,  was  held  as  often  as  possible  in  the 
whiskey  shop.  Whether,  however,  held  there  or  elsewhere, 
drinking  formed  the  most  characteristic  incident  of  the  proceed- 
ings. No  doubt  there  are  persons  still  living  in  SHgo  who 
witnessed  some  of  those  disgraceful  scenes,  and,  having  witnessed 
them,  must  always  remember  them  ;  for  the  huge,  burly  coroner, 
Abraham  Fenton,  and  his  jury  of  boon  companions,  sitting 
around  a  table  covered  with  bottles,  jugs,  and  glasses,  and 
enveloped  in  an  atmosphere  reeking  with  the  vapours  of  whiskey 
punch  or  scalteen,  and  the  fumes  of  tobacco,  formed  a  picture 
which,  once  seen,  could  hardly  ever  be  forgotten.  And  if  any- 
thing were  needed  to  fix  the  picture  indelibly  in  the  memory,  it 
was  abundantly  supplied  by  a  torrent  of  abuse,  mixed  with 
imprecations,  which  this  ill-mannered  public  officer  was  in  the 
habit  of  pouring  out  on  any  witnesses  who  gave  evidence  which 
he  did  not  like,  and  on  any  jurors  who  scrupled  for  an  instant 
to  adopt  the  verdict  which  he  dictated. 

It  was  about  a  score  of  years  ago  the  commodious  barrack  on 
the  Albert  Road,  was  built  for  the  Constabulary.  Since  the 
inauguration  of  the  force  in  1822,  by  the  Act  of  Geo.  IV.,  cap. 
103,  members  of  it  have  been  stationed  in  various  parts  of  the 
town.  On  their  first  introduction,  they  were  located  in  three  or 
four  cabins,  and  one  thatched  house,  two  storied,  which  lay 
between  the  present  gaol  and  the  river,  and  from  which  the 
occupants  had  been  removed  to  make  room  for  the  peace  pre- 
servers. Sixteen  men,  the  number  allowed  by  the  Act  of 


392  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Parliament  for  each  barony  of  a  county,  settled  in  the  three  or 
four  cabins,  and  their  officer,  or  Head  Constable,  as  he  was 
technically  styled,  a  gentleman  named  Bulfin,  took  the  two 
storied  house  to  himself.  In  a  few  years  the  sixteen  men  and 
a  new  officer,  named  Tracy,  got  lodging  or  barrack  accommoda- 
tion in  a  house  on  the  site  of  the  college,  in  Quay  Street. 

Prior  to  the  creation  of  the  Constabulary  by  the  Act  of  1822, 
the  minor  executive  officers  of  the  law  were  called  Baronial 
Constables,  and  popularly,  Old  Barneys  ;  and  being  without 
uniform,  without  arms,  without  discipline,  they  presented  a 
contrast  to  the  new  force,  who  were  regularly  trained,  were 
armed  with  carbines,  and  were  clad  in  a  neat  uniform.  The 
Old  Barneys  were  charged  with  many  of  the  duties  now  per- 
formed by  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  but  were  so  mercenary 
and  so  crapulous,  that  a  few  tenpennies  or  a  glass  or  two  of 
whiskey  would  render  them  insensible  to  every  obligation.  If 
they  were  directed  to  arrest  a  law  breaker,  a  moderate  douceur 
prevented  them  from  finding  the  man  "wanted  ;"  if  they  were 
conveying  a  prisoner  to  gaol,  a  friend  had  only  to  use  his  good 
offices,  and  they  would  let  off  their  charge,  and  hasten  back  to 
the  magistrate  to  say  they  had  been  waylaid  on  the  road,  and 
their  prisoner  rescued  ;  and  if  they  received  a  warrant  to  search 
for  stolen  goods,  they  would  do  with  it  just  as  they  liked,  "  one 
of  them,"  says  Mr.  Curtis,  in  his  History  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary,  "  lending  a  search  warrant  to  a  comrade  in  an 
adjoining  district  to  search  for  stolen  turnips,  which  had 
originally  been  issued  to  himself  to  search  for  timber." 

Drinking  was  their  besetting  weakness.  Even  those  of  them 
who  were  counted  models  of  propriety,  were  addicted  to  this 
habit.  If  we  are  to  rely  on  Mr.  Curtis'  History  of  the  Irish 
Constabulary,  the  Baronial  Constables  were  commonly  called 
Old  Barneys,  "from  Barny  McKeon,  undoubtedly  the  most 
celebrated  man  of  his  class." 

Poor  Barney  !  Peace  to  your  manes !  It  is  little  your  old 
neighbours  in  Collooney  imagined  that  you  would  one  day  figure 
thus  in  history.  How  well  do  the  elderly  people  of  the  village 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  393 


still  remember  your  tall,  angular  figure,  your  mock  gravity,  and 
that  facetious  salutation  of  yours  to  all  the  young  folk  you  met, 
"  I'll  break  my  arm  across  your  face."  Cross  as  you  tried  to 
look,  the  juveniles  knew  it  was  all  make-believe,  and  far  from 
feeling  frightened  themselves  by  your  queer  sounding  greeting, 
or  desiring,  in  consequence,  any  hurt  to  your  precious  "  arm," 
or  any  other  of  your  belongings,  only  wished  you  all  the  better 
for  your  pleasantries,  as  they  answered,  in  a  spirit  like  your  own, 
"more  power  to  your  elbow." 

Barney,  like  his  comrades,  had  a  weakness  for  toddy,  and 
cultivated  its  acquaintance  as  diligently  as  he  could.  After  the 
suppression  of  the  Baronials,  he  was  sometimes  hard  put  to  in 
gratifying  his  tastes  ;  but  the  good  natured  Orangemen  of  the 
neighbourhood  appointed  him  door-keeper  of  their  Collooney 
lodge  ;  and,  as  their  meetings  in  those  days  were  more  frequent, 
and  much  more  convivial  than  at  present,  Barney  McKeon  had 
a  good  time  of  it  often  enough,  in  drinking  deep  to  the  glorious, 
pious,  and  immortal  memory  of  the  great  patron  of  the  brother- 
hood. 

Talking  of  Barney  and  his  propensities,  one  is  reminded  of  a 

certain  comrade  of  his,  Tom  M .    Tom  too  was  not  over  well  off 

after  the  collapse  of  the  Baronials  ;  but,  as  he  passed  for  a  "  con- 
vert "  from  Popery,  he  had  troops  of  friends  among  those  who  had 
all  the  patronage  of  the  day  in  their  hands,  and  was  appointed  by 
them  to  the  office  of  assistant  sexton  to  the  Protestant  church  of 
Collooney.  The  habits  acquired,  while  Barony  Constable,  had 
more  influence  on  the  sexton,  than  the  solemn  surroundings  of 
his  new  position ;  and  the  unfortunate  man,  on  receiving  once  into 
the  vestry  a  quantity  of  wine,  invited  a  poor  half  natural  of  the 
village  to  join  him  in  a  glass  of  it,  when  both,  having  tasted  the 
beverage,  liked  it  so  well,  that  they  continued  their  potations 
till  they  fell  helpless  on  the  floor,  where  they  were  found  the 
following  day  more  dead  than  alive. 

This  specimen  of  the  Old  Barneys,  which  is  hardly  an  exagge- 
rated one,  shows  the  difference  between  them  and  their  successors 
of  the  Irish  Constabulary.  The  difference  is  sufficiently  marked, 


394  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


even  taking  the  constabulary  as  they  proceeded  from  the  hands 
of  Peel,  and  were  called  Peelers,  and  were  described,  for  their 
one-sidedness,  "  as  an  Orange  yeomanry  in  green  uniform  ; "  but 
the  contrast  is  much  more  striking,  considering  the  force  as 
reformed,  and  new  moulded  in  1836,  by  the  incomparable 
Thomas  Drummond,  who  left  it,  what  it  has  since  remained,  the 
most  respectable  and  most  efficient  police  force  in  the  world. 

It  is  only  persons  who  know  the  police  and  military  of  other 
countries  that  can  duly  appreciate  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary. 
Compared,  for  instance,  with  the  gendarmerie  of  France,  or 
with  the  crack  regiments  of  her  army,  the  Constabulary  have  a 
decided  superiority,  both  in  physique  and  morale.  The  tall 
stalwart  form,  the  handsome  person,  the  manly  bearing,  the  firm 
but  elastic  step  of  our  countrymen,  are  physical  qualities  in 
which  they  easily  carry  off  the  palm  from  the  choicest  troops  of 
that  country.  And  their  superiority  in  the  most  valuable  moral 
qualities  is  hardly  less  marked.  Loyal  observance  of  the 
engagements  of  honour  and  conscience  which  they  contracted 
on  joining  the  force,  ready  obedience  to  those  who  are  set  in 
command  over  them,  courage  that  knows  no  fear  in  the  per- 
formance of  duty,  no  matter  how  perilous  ;  these  are  the  highest 
virtues  of  men  under  command,  and  they  are  precisely  the 
virtues  for  which  the  Irish  Constabulary  have  been  distinguished 
all  through  since  their  formation. 

Nor  are  their  private  virtues  less  deserving  of  commendation; 
for  there  is  no  body  of  men,  perhaps,  in  Ireland  of  any  class  or 
profession,  that  has  a  better  record  in  this  respect,  which  is  all 
the  more  creditable  for  them  as  they  are  away,  at  least  the 
younger  men  among  them,  from  those  family  and  local  influences 
which  have  so  much  to  do  in  keeping  others  in  the  right  path. 
As  to  their  charity  and  patriotism,  they  are  so  well  known,  that 
appeals  for  charitable  or  patriotic  objects  are  addressed  as  con- 
fidently, and  always  as  successfully,  to  the  police  barracks,  as  to 
the  presbyteries  and  religious  houses  of  the  country,  or  to  the 
residences  of  the  most  spirited  and  open-handed  of  our  gentry 
and  merchants. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  395 


Others  might  imitate  advantageously  much  of  their  conduct, 
and  more  especially  their  concord  and  brotherhood,  though  they 
come  from  different  regions  of  the  country,  and  profess  different 
creeds.  The  silly  antipathies  often  felt,  and  often  too  mani- 
fested, by  the  inhabitants  of  one  province  in  regard  to  the 
inhabitants  of  other  provinces,  is  never  heard  of,  or  thought  of, 
in  the  Constabulary  barrack,  where  Connaughtmen  and 
Munstermen,  Leinstermen  and  Ulstermen,  all  regard  one 
another  alike  as  friends  and  comrades.  And  that  other  great 
cause  of  social  estrangement,  difference  of  creed,  which  operates 
so  strongly  and  extensively  in  other  places,  seems,  like  typhus 
fever  in  certain  favoured  climates,  to  lose  most  of  its  malignity 
in  those  peaceful  abodes;  for  episcopal  Protestants,  Presby- 
terians, and  Catholics  forget  there  their  mutual  religious 
differences,  and  remember  only  their  common  religious  obliga- 
tion of  loving  the  neighbour — taking  the  definition  of  neighbour 
from  the  beautiful  parable  propounded  expressly  for  the  purpose 
of  answering  the  weighty  question,  "  And  who  is  my  neighbour? " 

In  employing  this  language,  it  is  by  no  means  intended  to 
justify  various  transactions  in  which  the  Constabulary  have  been 
engaged ;  for  some  of  these  occurrences  are  notoriously  in- 
defensible ;  but  whatever  was  amiss  or  evil  in  them,  should  be 
imputed  to  the  officers  or  other  superiors,  and  not  to  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  body — the  portion  of  the  force  to  which  reference 
is  here  made. 

The  town-hall,  which  is  in  the  modern  Italian  style,  is  pro- 
bably the  most  faultless  building  in  Sligo.  Tourists  of  taste 
say  it  throws  the  town-halls  of  Cork,  and  Limerick,  and,  perhaps, 
that  of  Dublin,  into  the  shade.  While  its  exterior  is  striking  and 
beautiful,  the  accommodation  which  the  interior  affords  is,  con- 
sidering its  proportions,  extraordinary.  The  ground  floor 
contains  a  Free  Library  and  Reading  Room,  a  Newsroom  and 
Exchange,  a  Chamber  of  Commerce,  a  Borough  Court,  a  Council 
Chamber,  and  other  offices,  as  well  as  apartments  for  caretakers. 
The  upper  floor,  which  is  reached  by  a  fine  broad  stone  stair- 
case, comprises  a  noble  Assembly  room,  the  Town  Clerk's  office, 


S96  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


probably  the  best  lighted  apartment  in  the  town,  rooms  for  the 
Harbour  Commissioners,  and  a  room  for  the  Mayor,  all  lofty, 
well  aired,  well  lighted,  and  admirably  fitted  for  their  several 
^nds.  A  well  proportioned  tower  crowns  the  fabric,  and  contains 
a  fine  clock,  presented  by  the  late  Mr.  Charles  Anderson,  who 
was  a  native  of  the  town,  an  extensive  merchant,  and  a  gentle- 
man of  much  public  spirit.  The  whole  building  cost  something 
more  than  £12,000. 

The  site  of  this  edifice  is  historical,  being  that  on  which  the 
Cromwellians  built  a  fortress  during  their  tenure  of  the  town 
(see  p.  188).  In  the  year  1700,  Alderman  Benjamin  Burton,  the 
then  owner,  made  over  the  plot  to  William  III.  for  a  barrack, 
in  consideration  of  the  sum  of  £50,  and  of  a  reserved  yearly  rent 
of  one  shilling.  As  the  barrack  was  no  longer  needed  towards 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Ordnance  Department, 
in  the  year  1792,  leased  the  plot  to  Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  Hazel- 
wood,  by  the  description  of  "  all  that  piece  of  ground  at  Sligo, 
called  the  Old  Fort,  and  the  tenement  and  premises  within  the 
walls  of  the  said  Fort,  containing,  theretofore,  the  magazine  store- 
house, the  house  then  occupied  by  the  surveyor  of  excise,  the 
ruins  of  the  artillery  barracks,  and  all  other  houses,  buildings, 
and  improvements,  erected  or  made  thereon,"  at  the  yearly  rent 
of  £16  12s.  4d.,  British  currency.  By  deed  of  assignment,  Lord 
Baron  Panmure,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  War  Department, 
sold  the  Government  interest  in  1856,  to  the  trustees  of  Mr.  John 
Arthur  Wynne,  for  four  hundred  pounds ;  and  on  the  27th  May, 
1864,  Mr.  Wynne  made  a  lease  of  the  plot  for  a  town-hall,  to  the 
mayor,  aldermen,  and  burgesses  of  Sligo,  for  the  term  of  834 
years,  at  the  clear  yearly  rent  of  £50,  the  lease  containing  a 
-covenant,  that  the  lessees  should  expend  on  the  proposed  work 
at  least  £3,500  within  three  years. 

Together  with  being  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  Corporation, 
the  Assembly  Room  serves  as  a  centre  for  the  mental  and  moral 
improvement  of  the  townspeople,  being  largely  used  for  lectures, 
dramatic  performances,  concerts,  exhibitions,  bazaars,  and  other 
refining  and  moralizing  purposes. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  397 


One  of  the  most  effective  agencies  for  the  intellectual  and 
moral  improvement  of  Sligo  is  the  Free  Library  and  Reading 
Room.  It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  Town  Council,  that 
they  set  apart  the  largest  and  best  room  in  the  town-hall  for 
this  purpose  ;  and  it  must  be  gratifying  to  them,  that  the  oppor- 
tunity of  self  culture  thus  afforded  to  the  people  is  turned  into 
excellent  account.  Mr.  Saultry,  the  intelligent  and  zealous 
superintendent,  states  that  the  room  is  open  from  10  o'clock, 
a.m.,  to  10  o'clock,  p.m.,  on  week  days,  and  from  2.  o'clock  to 
7  o'clock  on  Sundays  ;  that  the  attendances  average  150  a  day; 
that  many  of  the  readers  confine  themselves  to  the  newspapers, 
but  that  a  good  number  occupy  themselves  with  the  books,  of 
which  there  are  1,600  volumes  in  the  library ;  and  that,  though 
at  first  there  was  some  little  trouble  in  keeping  order,  every- 
thing at  present  passes  as  decorously  as  it  does  in  the  City 
Library,  Dublin,  or  in  the  British  Museum. 

All  this,  as  has  been  said,  is  highly  creditable  to  the  Town 
Council,  and  to  no  member  of  it  more  than  to  Mr.  James 
Sedley,  who  was  exceptionally  active  in  bringing  it  about ;  and 
as  the  name  of  Mr.  Sedley  has  occurred,  it  is  only  fair  to  add, 
that  apart  from  politics,  on  which  no  opinion  is  offered  here,  he 
and  his  brother,  Alderman  Sedley,  have,  all  through  life,  shown 
themselves  thorough  Sligo  men,  ever  ready  and  willing  to  make 
efforts  and  sacrifices  to  benefit  their  native  town  and  their 
fellow-townsmen. 

The  banking  house  of  the  Provincial  Bank,  built  in  1884, 
and  that  of  the  Ulster  Bank,  erected  in  1880,  are  a  striking 
addition  to  the  street  in  which  they  stand,  and  even  to  the 
town.  The  state  of  things  in  Sligo  in  the  early  years  of  the 
century  showed  the  need  of  some  solvent  banking  concern?. 
Coin  was  so  scarce,  that  much  of  the  traffic  carried  on  resembled 
the  contract  of  barter  rather  than  that  of  sale,  people  usually 
giving  yarn  in  exchange  for  other  commodities.  This  was 
sometimes  the  case  even  in  large  transactions  ;  and  in  Arthur 
Young's  time,  the  rent  of  the  Honourable  Mr.  Fitzmaurice's 
great  estate,  in  and  round  Ballymote,  was  paid  in  hanks  of 


398  HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


yarn  (Young's  Tour).  It  was  in  the  same  way  country  people 
settled  their  accounts  in  the  shops,  handing  hanks  of  yarn 
across  the  counter  in  exchange  for  groceries  or  colouring  stuffs  ; 
and  not  unfrequently,  priests  at  Station-houses  received  their 
dues  in  the  same  shape. 

Tradesmen's  tokens,  common  enough  in  the  towns  of  the 
south,  do  not  seem  to  have  circulated  much  in  Sligo.  The 
only  Sligo  token,  that  has  come  under  the  writer's  notice, 
is  one  of  Walter  Lynch,  which  bears  the  date  of  1669; 
and,  though  other  dealers  may  have  done  as  Lynch  did,  this  is  not 
probable,  seeing  that  none  of  their  tokens  have  come  down  to  us. 

In  the  absence  of  regular  banks,  individuals,  or  firms,  took  on 
themselves  to  issue  notes,  containing  promises  to  pay  on 
demand.  A  clerk  named  Ballantyne,  having  been  taken  into 
partnership  by  Mr.  McCreery,  a  Sligo  merchant,  the  firm  forth- 
with began  to  issue  notes,  and  on  so  large  a  scale  that  their 
paper  was  in  circulation  all  through  the  county,  when  the 
inevitable  collapse  came,  on  the  17th  June,  1808,  to  the  loss  of 
many,  and  to  the  utter  ruin  of  not  a  few.*  A  year  or  two 
earlier,  a  gentleman  named  Mullen,  who  lived  on  the  Green 
Fort,  took  to  the  business  of  private  banker ;  but  his  notes  were 
soon  "  called  down,"  as  the  phrase  was,  though  not  before  many 
of  them  had  found  their  way  into  the  pockets  of  tradesmen  and 
farmers.  Mr.  John  Black,  a  leading  merchant  of  the  town, 
appeared  next  on  the  scene,  and  did  a  large  business,  as  the 
agent  of  Benjamin  Ball,  Dublin,  but  failed  in  the  end  with 
liabilities  to  the  extent  of  £20,000.  Mr.  Black,  it  may  be 
remarked,  had  a  turn  for  building  as  well  as  for  banking,  and 

*  The  feelings  spread  through  the  country  by  the  failure  of  Ballantyne  and 
McCreery,  may  be  gathered  from  a  popular  street  ballad  of  the  day,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  sample  : — 

"  Bad  luck  to  McCreery  wherever  he  goes, 
He's  the  author  of  all  my  privations  and  woes, 
I  swear  by  the  Bank  that  while  ever  I  live 
My  curse  to  the  Ballantyne  notes  I  will  give, 
From  Cartorn  to  Keash,  and  all  round  Ballymote, 
You  won't  get  a  straw  for  a  Ballantyne  note." 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  399 


built  at  Rosses'  Point,  the  handsome  sea-side  lodge  of  Elsinore, 
outside  of  which  he  had  several  cannon  set,  as  if  to  command 
the  Sligo  river,  as  Kronborg  Castle  commands  the  Elsinore 
Sound.  In  this  way  he  managed  to  dispose  of  a  good  share  of 
Benjamin  Ball's  twenty  thousand  pounds. 

The  doings  of  these  and  other  would-be-bankers  attracted  the 
notice  of  the  Government,  who  sent  down  a  commission  to  Sligo 
to  inquire  on  the  spot  into  what  had  been  going  on ;  and  the 
inquiry  makes  us  acquainted  with  another  of  the  Sligo  bankers, 
a  small  grocer  of  Stephen  Street,  named  Thomas  McGowan, 
who,  thinking  he  had  as  good  a  right  as  others  to  issue  notes 
payable  on  demand,  settled  some  of  his  accounts  in  this  way. 
Tom's  trade  lay  largely  in  dyeing  substances,  which  were  then  in 
great  demand  for  colouring  the  home-made  friezes  and  druggets 
of  the  farmers ;  and  being  summoned  suddenly  by  the  Com- 
missioners to  appear  before  them,  he  proceeded  in  haste  from 
behind  his  counter  to  their  court,  his  hands  and  face  as  black  as 
if  they  were  dyed  all  over  with  his  own  indigo.  When  in  this 
plight  he  got  into  the  witness  chair,  the  Commissioners,  after 
looking  at  him  for  sometime,  did  not  know  well  what  to  make 
of  him,  and  asked  him,  "  What  are  you  ?"  and  when  Tom,  full 
of  his  own  dignity,  replied  with  great  gravity,  "  I  am  a  Banker," 
the  Commissioners,  half  afraid  that  they  were  being  hoaxed, 
told  him  to  go  home  and  wash  his  face,  that  they  might  see 
what  he  looked  like. 

It  was  a  case,  however,  for  the  application  of  the  old 
admonition,  "  Ne  nimium  crede  colori."  Poor  Tom  may 
may  not  have  been  as  particular  as  he  might  have  been  about 
the  outside  of  the  platter,  but  he  took  care  to  keep  the  inside 
all  right;  and  it  must  be  recorded  to  his  honour  that,  while  the 
other  bankers  mentioned  beggared  many  of  those  who  had 
dealings  with  them,  Tom  McGowan,  like  the  honest  man  he 
was,  paid  everybody  twenty  shillings  in  the  pound. 

These  proceedings  having  shown  the  need  of  regular  financial 
agencies  in  Sligo,  the  Provincial  Bank  opened  a  branch  there  in 
1826,  and  the  Bank  of  Ireland  another  in  1830,  the  Ulster 


400 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Bank  following  in  1860.  The  National  Bank  opened  a  branch 
in  the  town  in  1836,*  but  it  was  soon  given  up,  owing,  it  is  said, 
to  want  of  business,  which  local  opinion  laid  to  the  account  of 
the  manager's  unaccommodating  method  of  dealing.  A  similar 
fate  overtook  a  branch  of  the  Agricultural  Bank,  about  1841, 
the  collapse  in  this  case  too  being  laid,  and  not  without  reason, 
at  the  door  of  the  manager.  Since  1820  there  has  been  a 
Trustees  Savings'  Bank  in  Sligo,  which  is  said  to  have  brought 
much  benefit  to  the  poorer  classes ;  and  at  present  the  Post 
Office  Savings'  Banks  of  the  county  are  turned  to  good  account, 
as  a  recent  official  return  shows,  that  £44,678  lies  there  to  the 
credit  of  county  Sligo  depositors. 

*  The  following  list  of  the  Sligo  Shareholders  of  the  National  Bank,  appears 
in  the  Sligo  Journal,  of  December  2nd,  1836  : — 


Martin  Madden,  Sligo. 

James  O'Donnell,  Sligo. 

James  Madden,  Sligo. 

Richard  Anderson,  Sligo. 

Thomas  Boland,  Sligo. 

John  Anderson,  Sligo. 

William  Kelly,  J.P.,  Camphill. 

Thomas  Kelly,  Sligo. 

Michael  Gallagher,  Sligo. 

Rev.  James  Donleavy,  P.P.,  Sligo. 

J.  P.  S.  Hadaway,  Sligo. 

William  Aikman,  Sligo. 

Thomas  Brady,  Sligo. 

Owen  Foley,  Sligo. 

William  Donnellan,  Sligo. 

James  Boyle,  Sligo. 

Francis  M'Gloin,  Sligo. 

Godfrey  O'Rorke,  Sligo. 

Hugh  Rooney,  Sligo. 

Michael  Higgins,  Sligo. 

Owen  O'Connor,  Castlegal. 

H.  M'L'oghlin,  Highwood. 

Charles  Gardner,  Glen-house. 

Isaac  Cordukes,  Sligo. 

Darby  M'Morrey,  Urlar. 

Patrick  Kelly,  Sligo. 

James  Foley,  Sligo. 


John  Durkan,  Gurterslin. 
Bernard  M'Manus,  Sligo. 
B.  M'Getrick,  Ballymote. 
James  Crof  ton  Dodwell,  J.P.,  Knock  - 

rany. 

John  Gallagher,  Carney. 
John  Keighran,  Sligo. 
John  Hagarty,  Sligo. 
Patrick  M'Manus,  Sligo. 
Matthew  Walsh,  sen.,  Glen-house. 
John  Gilhooley,  Collooney. 
Patrick  O'Brien,  Rathlee. 
Philip  Gomley,  Ballymote. 
John  Byrne,  Revenue  Service,  Manor- 

hamilton. 
Matt.  Leonard. 

Rev.  P.  Dowdican,  P.P.,  Drumard. 
John  Parke,  Castlegal. 
John  Cawley,  Riverstown. 
Rev.  Bart.  Costello,  P.P.,  Screen. 
Mark  Cooke,  Tubercorry. 
Rev.  Paul  Henry,  P.P.,  Carinacliagh. 
Martin  O'Brien,  Carrot machrjun. 
John  Killilea,  Sligo. 
Peter  Cunningham,  Sligo. 
James  Henry,  Sligo. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  401 


The  Infirmary  building  is  admirably  suited  to  its  destination, 
both  in  itself,  and  in  its  situation.  While  the  wards  and  other 
apartments  are  spacious,  well-aired,  and  well-lighted,  the  views 
which  they  afford  of  the  Sligo  river,  Lough  Gill,  Hazelwood, 
Cairns'  Hill,  and  the  mountains  in  the  distance  are  so  charming, 
that  it  would  be  almost  worth  a  man's  while  to  fall  ill,  and 
become  an  inmate,  to  have  an  opportunity  of  enjoying  them. 
Even  when  the  structure  was  much  smaller  than  it  is  now,  it  was 
greatly  admired,  and  a  seal,  with  a  view  of  the  building,  was 
executed  by  the  distinguished  medallist,  William  Stephen 
Mossop.  It  is  matter  of  regret  that  this  seal  is  no  longer  to  be 
had ;  nor  do  there  seem  to  be  any  impressions  of  it  left  in  the 
existing  papers  and  books  of  the  establishment.  About  fifty 
years  ago  were  added  the  two  wings,  which  make  the  infirmary 
a  very  graceful  and  well-proportioned  edifice,  while  they 
nearly  double  the  accommodation  which  was  previously 
afforded. 

The  institution  has  been  always  under  the  care  of  medical 
men  of  eminence :  Doctor  Burnside,  Doctor  Overden,  Doctor 
Biliar,  Surgeon  Bell,  Doctor  Coyne,  Doctors  Little  (father  and 
son) ;  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  actual  occupant  of  the 
office,  Doctor  MacDowel,  is  fully  equal  to  the  most  distinguished 
of  his  predecessors  in  professional  ability,  as  well  as  in  friendly 
feelings  for  his  patients.  As  a  physician  and  as  a  surgeon  he 
has  been  equally  successful;  and  those  who  take  an  interest  in 
the  institution  are  aware  that  surgical  operations  of  the  most 
difficult  and  delicate  character  are  performed  there,  and  with 
results  which  would  do  credit  to  the  leading  hospital  of  the 
metropolis. 

Dr.  MacDowel's  staff  consists  of  an  apothecary;  a  treasurer, 
a  matron,  a  house  steward,  three  nurses,  two  ward  maids,  two 
laundry  maids,  a  cook,  and  a  night  nurse.  Some  time  ago  one 
might  hear,  now  and  again,  murmu rings,  as  if  one  or  other  of 
the  then  nurses  took  special  care  of  patients  who  could  afford  to 
give  douceurs,  and  rather  neglected,  at  least  comparatively, 
others  whose  poverty  left  them  unable  to  act  in  this  way, 
VOL.  I.  2  G 


402  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO, 


There  may  have  been  no  ground  for  such  complaints,  even  in  the 
past,  but  whether  or  not,  there  is  nothing  of  the  kind  heard  at 
present,  which  is  very  gratifying,  as  an  impression  or  suspicion 
of  that  kind,  whether  well  or  ill-founded,  could  hardly  fail  to 
discredit  in  the  eyes  of  the  poor,  an  establishment  of  which  the 
town  and  county  have  good  reason  to  be  proud. 

The  Fever  Hospital  enjoys  all  the  advantages  of  situation 
which  the  Infirmary  possesses.  It  stands  on  the  same  hill,  at  a 
somewhat  higher  elevation,  where  the  supply  of  air,  which  is  so 
necessary  for  such  an  institution,  is  pure  and  perfect  to  a  degree 
very  rarely  met  with.  It  was  built  between  1817  and  1822,  and 
is  for  the  most  part  a  work  of  private  munificence.  A  visitation 
of  famine  followed  by  fever,  which  afflicted  the  town  and  county 
in  1817,  led  to  its  erection.  The  famine  was  occasioned  by  the 
failure  of  the  potato  and  oats  crops,  caused  by  continuous  heavy 
rains,  lasting  from  July  to  the  end  of  October.  Provisions,  in 
consequence,  rated  so  high  in  1817  that  oatmeal  sold  for  six- 
pence a  pound,  or  five  shillings  a  peck,  and  Mr.  Peter  O'Connor 
states  that  he  himself  saw  a  small  cargo  of  meal,  which  came 
from  Drogheda,  retailed  at  that  price. 

As  always  happens  in  Ireland,  the  famine  was  followed  by 
fever,  which  grew  so  general  and  malignant  in  the  town  and 
county,  that  several  hundred  died  of  it.  For  want  of  due  care, 
and  particularly  for  want  of  an  hospital,  or  other  suitable  place 
in  which  that  care  might  be  exercised,  a  great  many  preventible 
deaths  occurred  ;  and  it  was  to  guard  against  the  recurrence  of 
such  a  state  of  things  that  Mr.  Edward  Synge  Cooper,  one  of 
the  members  of  Parliament  for  the  county,  set,  single-handed, 
about  the  erection  of  an  hospital  to  be  devoted  to  fever  patients 
exclusively.  In  gratitude  to  this  public  benefactor,  the  Grand 
Jury  wished  to  name  the  new  structure  The  Cooper  Hospital, 
but  Mr.  Cooper,  who  acted  from  motives  of  benevolence  and 
charity,  would  not  hear  of  such  a  thing,  and  insisted  on  the 
house  being  called  simply  the  Sligo  Fever  Hospital.  To  avoid 
offending  his  friends  of  the  Grand  Jury,  he  allowed  his  name  to 
be  inscribed  on  a  stone  over  the  front  entrance,  but  only  on 


HISTORY   OF  SL1GO.  403 


condition  that  he  should  not  figure  as  the  founder,  but  merely 
as  a  helper.  In  accordance  with  his  desire,  the  stone  bears 
this  inscription : — 

SLIGO  FEVER  HOSPITAL, 
ERECTED  AT  THE  JOINT  EXPENSE  OF  THE  COUNTY, 

AND 

EDWARD  SYNGE  COOPER,  ESQ.,  M.P., 
1822. 

The  Hospital,  which  was  finished  and  fitted  for  patients  in 
1822,  was  sadly  needed  that  year,  for  famine  raged  then  more 
fiercely  than  in  1817.  To  answer  the  cries  for  relief  rising  from 
all  parts  of  the  west  of  Ireland,  the  English  people,  with  their 
characteristic  humanity,  organized  a  great  Relief  Committee  in 
London,  which  was  commonly  called  the  Irish  Distress  Com- 
mittee, and  which  collected  funds  to  the  amount  of  £304,180. 
Applications  for  relief  were  addressed  to  this  body  by  the  gentry 
and  clergy  of  the  county  in  letters  which  give  a  saddening  picture 
of  the  state  of  things  prevailing  through  the  district  at  the  time. 
Communications  of  this  kind  were  forwarded  by  Colonel  Percival, 
on  the  6th  of  June,  by  Mr.  Edward  Synge  Cooper,  on  the  8th  of 
June,  by  Mr.  Charles  King  O'Hara,  M.P.,  on  the  17th  of  June,  by 
Mr.  Owen  "Wynne,  on  the  1st  of  July,  and  at  different  dates  by 
the  clergy  of  all  denominations,  including  the  Right  Reverend 
Doctor  McNicholas,  Bishop  of  Achonry,  Rev.  James  Neligan, 
Protestant  Rector  of  Kilmacteige,  and  Rev.  William  Urwick, 
Independent  minister  of  Sligo. 

All  these  letters  are  well  worth  studying  for  the  light  which 
they  throw  on  that  dismal  period,  but  extracts  from  one  or  two, 
which  derive  a  special  interest  from  the  lofty  character  of  their 
writers,  are  all  there  is  room  for  here.  In  one  of  his  letters,  the 
amiable  and  able  Doctor  McNicholas  writes,  under  the  date  23rd 
August,  "This  country  owes  an  eternal  debt  of  gratitude  to 
England,  whose  prompt  and  noble  generosity  rescued  our 
peasantry  from  the  horrors  of  famine  and  pestilence.  May 
Providence  always  enable  the  humane  and  liberal  English 
nation  to  continue  the  benefactors  of  mankind.*'  Mr.  Cooper's 


404?  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


letter  is  written  from  Mullingar,  and  is  dated  the  8th  June  ;  and 
in  it  the  builder  of  the  Fever  Hospital  is  found  doing  his  part 
in  the  crisis  with  characteristic  humanity  and  generosity : — "  I 
am  at  present/'  says  he,  "employing  persons  to  the  amount  of 
£150  per  week  in  the  county  of  Sligo  and  here,  which  will 
be  continued  during  the  pressure,  besides  £200  remitted  to  the 
Sligo  Central  Committee  in  cash,  and  half  as  much  laid  out 
in  seed  potatoes,  and  a  weekly  sum  to  the  parish  of  Ballysa- 
dare."  If  landlords  and  country  gentlemen  generally  evinced 
the  sympathy  with  the  people  which  was  shown  on  this  occasion 
by  Mr.  Cooper,  they  would  never  have  incurred  the  odium  with 
which  too  many  of  them  have  come  to  he  popularly  regarded. 

During  the  terrible  fever  epidemic  which  followed  the  famine 
of  1846,  the  hospital  was  crowded  as  it  had  never  been  before, 
and  as  it  has  never  been  since.  Though  intended  originally  for 
only  fifty  patients,  the  doctors  managed  in  1846  and  1847  to 
make  room  for  165  in  the  hospital  itself  and  the  temporary 
sheds  which  were  put  up  around  it.  The  following  are  the 
statistics  of  the  admissions  in  these  years,  as  supplied  by  Mr. 
Morris,  the  obliging  steward  of  the  establishment : — 

From  September,  1846  to  September,  1847    -     1,231 

1847  to        '    „          1848     -     1,340 

1848  to  January,       1849    -         97 

Total    ••    2,668 

Besides  the  Fever  Hospital  and  its  surrounding  sheds,  the 
building  now  serving  for  the  Diocesan  School  received  consider- 
able numbers  of  the  infected,  but  there  seems  to  be  no  record  of 
the  admissions.  While  all  these  places,  the  Hospital,  the  Sheds, 
the  Diocesan  School,  or  Charter  School,  as  it  was  commonly 
called  at  the  time,  were  crowded  to  their  utmost  capacity,  still 
scores  of  unfortunate  fever  stricken  men  and  women  might  be 
seen  lying  on  wads  of  straw  along  the  road  from  the  Calry 
church  to  Ballinode,  waiting  their  turn  to  be  received  into  one 
of  the  roofed  structures.  Persons  who  witnessed  those  scenes- 
shudder  still  at  the  thought  when  telling  of  them,  and  rarely 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  405 


omit  a  prayer  to  be  preserved  from  ever  seeing  such  harrowing 
sights  again — a  prayer  in  which  everyone  must  heartily  join. 

The  ravages  of  the  fever  had  hardly  ceased  when  the  still 
more  dreaded  cholera  invaded  the  town  in  1849.  The  recollec- 
tion of  1832,  as  might  be  expected,  filled  the  inhabitants  with 
alarm,  but  the  visitation  of  1849  was  much  less  destructive, 
though  still  sufficiently  trying.  The  admissions  that  year  to  the 
Fever  Hospital,  turned  for  the  occasion  into  a  cholera  hospital, 
were  166 ;  of  whom  98  died  and  68  recovered.  The  first  case 
came  from  Ballysadare,  a  woman  named  Ellen  Gallagher,  who 
was  admitted  into  the  hospital  on  the  29th  May,  and  died  that 
evening.  There  was  no  sign  of  epidemic  at  the  time,  and  this 
was  the  only  case  that  occurred  till  the  following  August. 

The  chief  victim  of  the  1849  cholera  was  Doctor  Little.  As 
became  the  brave  and  good  man  he  was  known  to  be,  he  fell  in 
the  heroic  performance  of  his  duty.  Having  been  engaged,  the 
day  before  his  death,  till  a  late  hour  of  the  evening  in  attending 
sick  calls  at  Ballincar,  instead  of  going  on  his  return  to  town  to 
his  own  house,  as  he  was  urged  to  do,  he  drove  to  the  Hospital 
and  remained  there  till  he  had  examined  and  prescribed  for 
every  patient  in  the  house.  This  devotedness  cost  him  his  life, 
for  he  contracted  the  disease  before  leaving  the  place,  and  went 
home  only  to  die. 

The  most  extensive  edifice  in  the  town,  or  connected  with  it, 
is  the  District  Lunatic  Asylum,  the  building  of  which  was  begun 
in  1848,  and  finished  in  1852,  the  house  being  opened  for 
patients  in  1855.  The  architect  was  Mr.  Deane  Butler,  the 
builder  Mr.  Caldwell,  Sligo,  and  the  clerk  of  works  Mr.  John 
Battle,  Collooney,  by  no  means  the  least  able  of  the  many  men 
of  mark  whom  that  little  town  has  produced.  The  structure 
consists  of  two  parts — a  central  range  which  cost  £35,199,  and 
two  wings  erected  at  a  cost  of  £18,000  in  1877,  when  experience 
had  shown  the  necessity  of  additional  accommodation  to  that 
extent.  The  house,  including  the  wings,  is  intended  to  accommo- 
date 470  patients,  and  seems  amply  sufficient  for  its  purpose. 
The  actual  annual  number  of  patients  up  to  the  present  ranging 


40G  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


from  400  to  424,  the  latter  being  the  highest  figure  yet  reached. 
The  institution  is  called  the  "Sligo  Lunatic  Asylum  for  the 
counties  of  Sligo  and  Leitrim,"  the  proportion  of  inmates  in 
1886  being  217  for  Sligo,  and  187  for  Leitrim.  The  expenditure 
for  the  year  1886  was  £7,756  10s.  2d.,  which  may  be  taken  a& 
the  average  annual  expenditure.  The  administration  of  the 
establishment  was  carried  on  in  1886  by  the  following  officers  : — 
Resident  Medical  Superintendent,  Dr.  Joseph  .Petit ;  assistant 
to  do.,  Dr.  G-.  R.  Lawless  ;  matron,  Mrs.  Armstrong  ;  Protestant 
chaplain,  Rev.  Thomas  Heany ;  Roman  Catholic  chaplain,  Rev. 
James  Fallon ;  clerk  and  storekeeper,  Mr.  Robert  Browne. 

Mrs.  Armstrong  has  lately  resigned  the  office  of  matron,  and 
her  resignation  has  elicited  from  everybody  connected  with  the 
place  expressions  of  deep  regret  for  losing  the  services  of  so 
kind,  so  able,  and  so  accomplished  a  lady. 

The  only  Superintendents  connected  with  the  institution  since 
its  opening  have  been  Dr.  McMunn,  who  held  the  office  from 
1855  to  1883,  and  Dr.  Petit,  who  succeeded  at  that  date,  and 
still  occupies  the  position.  The  leading  feature  of  Dr.  Pe tit's 
treatment  of  the  insane  is,  as  far  as  possible,  the  abolition  of 
all  those  outward  restraints,  which  some  time  ago  were  regarded 
as  indispensable  and  a  matter  of  course  in  the  asylums  of  the 
country.  In  pursuance  of  this  system  he  has  done  away  with 
so  called  "  airing  courts  " — spacious  areas,  which  were  surrounded 
with  high  stone  walls,  and  into  which  the  patients  were  turned 
at  certain  fixed  hours  to  take  there  what  exercise  they  could. 
Instead  of  caging  in  this  way  those  under  his  charge,  Dr.  Petit 
leaves  them,  during  recreation  time,  free  to  move  about  through 
the  extensive  grounds  of  the  place,  and  to  take  their  exercise 
and  recreation  just  as  they  think  fit  themselves.  A  large  num- 
ber of  the  male  patients  are  employed  on  the  farm,  and  with 
excellent  results,  both  in  regard  to  themselves  and  to  the  farm 
produce. 

As  another  step  in  the  direction  of  liberty  he  has  discon- 
tinued, unless  in  exceptional  cases,  the  use  of  single  rooms 
appropriated  to  individuals,  and  has  substituted  spacious  sleep- 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  407 


ing  apartments  or  dormitories  in  which  large  numbers  pass  the 
night  together ;  and  he  carries  the  principle  of  doing  away  with 
restraint  so  far  that  he  has  removed  the  doors  of  the  dormitories 
and  some  other  apartments,  leaving  the  places  quite  open  in 
order  to  impress  the  sense  of  freedom  still  deeper  on  the  minds 
of  all.  One  would  think,  considering  the  impulsive  and  way- 
ward feelings  of  the  insane,  that  those  changes  would  lead  to 
attempts  at  escape  and  other  inconveniences,  but  the  result 
has  justified  Dr.  Petit's  prevision  and  judgment,  for  the  inmates 
were  never  so  amenable  to  rule  or  so  attached  to  the  place  as 
since  the  new  system  was  put  in  force,  in  proof  of  which  it  may 
be  noticed,  that  some  who  were  taken  out  by  their  friends  to 
be  cared  at  home  have  returned  of  their  own  accord  to  the 
asylum,  and  put  themselves  again  into  the  doctor's  hands. 

The  Sligo  asylum  is  conducted  on  very  liberal  principles  as 
far  as  payment  for  patients  is  concerned.  When  a  patient 
is  sent  in,  there  are  no  questions  asked  as  to  the  ability  or 
inability  of  relatives  to  contribute  towards  his  maintenance — 
so  that  practically  the  matter  of  paying,  or  not  paying,  is  left 
entirely  to  themselves.  In  these  circumstances,  friends  or  rela- 
tives seldom  pay,  though  there  may  be  a  few  who,  either  from 
regard  for  the  patient,  or  from  dread  of  being  charged  with 
shabbiness  themselves,  elect  to  pay  less  or  more. 

The  private  houses  of  Sligo,  as  well  shop  houses  as  simple  resi- 
dences, are  in  style  and  finish  sufficiently  in  keeping  with  the 
public  buildings.  There  are  shop-houses  in  Market  Street,  Castle 
Street,  Radcliffe  Street,  Knox's  Street,  and  one  or  two  other 
streets,  as  extensive  and  imposing  as  any  that  can  be  found  in 
any  other  leading  town  or  city  in  Ireland  ;  and  Mr.  Campbell's 
ornate  mansion  on  the  Mall,  the  late  Dr.  Lynn's  fine  house,  with 
its  graceful  portico  in  Stephen  Street,  the  late  Dr.  Carter's 
stately  residence  in  Wine  Street,  and  some  others  of  the  town, 
can  hardly  be  surpassed  in  the  province  for  correctness 
of  proportion,  and  suitableness  of  accommodation ;  while 
the  suburbs  are  studded  all  round  with  handsome  seats  and 
villas,  both  those  built  some  years  ago — Merville,  belonging  to 


408  HISTORY    OF  SLIGO. 

Mr.  Tighe;  Farmhill,  to  Mr.  Peyton;  Kevinsfort,  to  Mr. 
Lestrange ;  Thornhill,  to  Mr.  Cullen ;  Rathedmond,  to  Mr. 
Middleton ;  Woodville,  to  Colonel  Wood  Martin ;  Cairns  Hill,  to 
Mr.  O'Connor  ;  Hermitage,  to  Major  Campbell;  Ardowen,  to  Mr. 
Wynne  ;  Marymount,  to  Mr.  Woods — and  those  just  erected, 
Eden  Hill,  the  fine  villa  of  Mr.  Walsh ;  Fern  Bank,  the  com- 
modious cottage  of  Mr.  Michael  O'Connor ;  and  the  boldly  and 
salubriously  situated  Charlemont  House,  built  by  the  late  Mr. 
Charles  Anderson,  and  called  Charlemont  from  his  Christian 
name,  Charles. 

The  picturesque  Rus  in  Urbe  villas  just  erected  by  Mr. 
Morris  marks  a  very  desirable  innovation  in  the  architecture  of 
the  town.  While  pre-existing  houses  were  substantial  and 
imposing,  they  lacked  in  some  measure  the  elegance  and  orna- 
ment which  are  found  in  similar  structures  in  England  and 
Scotland,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  Ireland.  It  is  creditable 
then  to  Mr.  Morris  to  have  initiated  a  new  departure  ;  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  others  will  follow  the  example  he  has  set,  and 
will,  like  him,  without  sacrificing  in  any  way  the  solidity  and 
accommodation  of  their  residences,  take  more  pains  in  future 
with  their  adornment. 

While  so  many  of  the  houses  of  the  town  are  both  lofty  and 
spacious,  the  streets  are  wide  in  proportion,  the  centre  well 
paved,  the  sideways  neatly  flagged,  and  the  whole  well  cared 
and  kept.  From  being  what  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  first  in- 
vasion of  cholera,  in  1832,  a  rather  dirty  town,  Sligo  has  become 
one  of  the  cleanest  in  the  kingdom,  this  result  being  very  much 
due  to  the  system  of  sewerage  lately  perfected,  with  skilfully 
designed  and  well  made  drains  running  through  all  the  streets, 
and  conveying  their  contents  to  a  main  intercepting  sewer, 
which  in  turn  discharges  itself  into  the  sea. 

The  abundant  water  supply  furnished  to  Sligo  through  the 
•waterworks  flushes  thoroughly  these  drains,  and  thus  con- 
tributes largely  to  the  cleanliness  and  salubrity  of  the  place. 
Before  the  execution  of  these  works,  the  only  water  available 
for  drinking,  or  other  purposes,  was  that  of  the  river,  and  of 


HISTORY  OF  SLTGO.  409 


three  or  four  wells.  The  river  water  was  unfit  for  drinking  and 
most  other  purposes  ;  for  the  river,  lying  under  the  sloping  streets, 
was  a  kind  of  cloaca  maxima,  into  which  everything  drained  ; 
and  as  the  town  was  then  full  of  tan-yards,  slaughter  houses,  and 
breweries,  the  liquid  refuse  of  these  establishments,  mixed  with 
the  nuisances  coming  from  the  inhabited  houses,  flowed  into  and 
poisoned  the  water  of  the  river. 

The  chief,  if  not  the  only,  wells  from  which"  people  obtained 
spring  water,  were  Tubber-an-shelmide,  near  Marymounf, 
Mullowney's  well  close  to  the  Green  Fort,  and  those  of  Tubber- 
Gal,  in  Knox's  Street,  and  the  Lungy.  Whatever  may  be  said 
of  the  waters  of  Tubber-na-Shelmide  and  Mullowney's  well, 
which  were  little  used,  being  inconveniently  situated,  it  is  clear 
that  Tubber-Gal  and  the  Lungy  could  not  escape  gross  pollution, 
lying,  as  they  did,  in  populous  districts,  at  the  bottom  of  deep 
hollows,  and  in  a  porous  soil. 

By  the  bye,  it  was  next  to  impossible  to  find  any  explana- 
tion of  the  strange  word  Lungy,  the  people  being  all  in 
the  dark  on  the  subject,  except  one  gentleman  of  rare 
intelligence,  and  with  a  larger  knowledge  of  the  Sligo  of 
sixty  or  seventy  years  ago,  than  any  other  person  living,  who 
states  that  the  name  comes  from  long — pronounced  lung — 
a  ship,  the  motion  of  the  morass,  which  formerly  surrounded 
the  well,  and  which,  when  stepped  on  by  little  boys  in  play, 
rose  and  fell  in  a  swinging  manner,  thus  resembling  the  rolling 
of  a  ship  on  sea,  and  suggesting  the  curious  appellation. 

The  water  taken  from  these  polluted  sources,  was  very 
different  from  that  conveyed  now  by  pipes  direct  from  the  fresh 
mountain  springs  into  the  streets  and  houses  of  Sligo,  which  is 
so  pure  and  abundant,  that  it  has  contributed  already  very 
sensibly  to  the  health  and  longevity  of  the  population.  What- 
ever difference  of  opinion  may  have  formerly  existed  as  to  the 
merits  of  the  Kilsellagh  Water  Scheme,  all  seem  agreed,  now  that 
it  is  in  operation,  that  it  is,  as  well  in  regard  to  the  quality,  as 
to  the  abundance  of  the  supply,  the  very  best  that  could  be 
devised  in  the  circumstances. 


410  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 

Mr.  Baptist  Kernaghan,  solicitor,  who  was  the  originator  and 
principal  promoter  of  the  measure,  and  his  partner,  Mr. 
Saunders,  had  a  Bill  laid  before  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
subject  in  1867,  but  the  Bill  being  lost,  and  Mr.  Kernaghan 
dying  soon  after,  the  matter  was  taken  up  energetically  by  a 
section  of  the  Town  Council,  who  carried  it  through  in  the  face 
of  great  opposition,  encountered  both  in  the  Corporation  and  in 
Parliament.  It  was  during  the  mayoralty  of  Mr.  Colleary, 
and  with  his  energetic  and  influential  assistance,  the  works  were 
completed,  and  on  the  13th  November,  1884,  the  water  was 
turned  on  for  the  first  time,  and  sent  on  its  beneficent  mission 
to  the  town  by  his  amiable  and  accomplished  daughter,  Miss 
Mary  Eose  Colleary,  whose  name  must  continue  associated  with 
this,  perhaps  the  greatest  temporal  blessing  Sligo  has  ever 
received. 

The  celebrated  engineer,  Mr.  Hassard,  designed  the  water- 
works. Messrs.  Sweeny  and  McLarnon  were  the  contractors,  and 
Mr.  McCreery,  C.E.,  the  clerk  of  works.  The  works  were  begun 
in  1881.  The  cost,  in  round  numbers,  was  £20,000  (in  exact 
figures  £19,457  16s.  6d.),  this  sum,  including  £1,231  17s.  8d., 
spent  in  repairing  a  slip  or  breach  in  the  embankment,  which 
was  of  so  serious  a  character,  that  it  took  seventy  thousand  carts 
of  stones  to  fill  up  the  gap.  It  is  said,  that  the  reservoir  which 
feeds  the  pipes  contains,  when  full,  50,000,000  gallons,  and  that 
the  supply  would  meet  the  requirements  of  a  population  twice 
as  large  as  that  which  the  town  contains  at  present.  The 
capabilities  of  the  source  were  well  tested  in  the  long  continued 
drought  of  the  past  summer,  the  result  proving  that  the  supply 
is,  under  present  circumstances,  practically  inexhaustible. 

From  all  this  it  is  clear  that  Sligo  is  a  handsome  town.  It 
is  said  to  have  the  air  of  a  business  town  too,  more  than  any 
other  in  Con  naught.  Tourists  after  travelling  through  the  rest 
of  the  province,  are  struck  with  the  trade  and  bustle  they  find 
in  the  place,  notably  on  market  days.  Gal  way,  the  only  town 
of  Connaught  that  can  be  compared  to  it,  is,  it  would  appear, 
going  to  the  bad,  its  exports  and  imports  diminishing,  its  squares 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  411 


and  streets  neglected  and  deserted,  its  quondam  "castles" 
turned  into  tenements  for  the  very  poor ;  while  Sligo  with  its 
wide,  clean,  and  well  paved  streets,  its  extensive  and  striking 
shops,  its  numerous  new  or  renovated  private  houses,  its  noble 
public  buildings,  and  its  magnificent  water  works,  exhibits  most 
of  the  attributes  of  a  prosperous,  as  well  as  a  progressive  town. 

And  tourists  are  as  well  pleased  with  the  hotels,  as  with  the 
sights  of  the  town  and  neighbourhood.  While  they  complain, 
often  enough — nor  probably  without  good  cause — of  the  hotels 
of  other  places,  both  as  to  fare  and  charges,  they  have  nothing 
but  praise  for  the  hotels  and  hotel  keepers  of  Sligo.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  meat  and  fish  markets  of  Sligo  cannot  be  sur- 
passed in  Ireland  ;  and  it  is  equally  admitted,  that  the  cooks  of 
the  Victoria  and  Imperial  can  turn  out  their  dishes  in  as  appetiz- 
ing a  style  as  the  chefde  cuisine  even  of  the  Dublin  Shelburne, 
so  that  those  who  patronise  these  establishments,  are  always 
as  agreeably  surprised  at  the  excellence  of  the  creature  comforts 
provided,  as  at  the  extreme  moderation  of  the  bill  that  follows. 

While  the  town  has  then  gained  greatly  in  appearance, 
elegance  and  healthiness,  it  has  lost  not  a  little  in  the  matter  of 
employments  and  industries,  as,  for  instance,  those  connected 
with  Messrs.  Alexander  Stewart  and  Co.'s  distillery ;  with 
Mr.  Martin's  distillery  and  flour  mills,  where  hundreds  were 
kept  at  work,  some  indoors,  some  out  of  door ;  with  several 
breweries — Jamieson's  brewery,  quite  close  to  the  spot  on  which 
Cleveragh  gate  now  stands;  Anderson's  brewery  in  Brewery 
Lane,  now  Water  Lane ;  Madden's  brewery  at  the  foot  of  Market 
Street;  Holmes'  brewery  at  Farmhill,  taken  over  or  purchased 
in  1819  by  Messrs.  Anderson  and  Co.,  from  Thomas  Holmes ; 
and  Love  Lane  brewery,  apparently  the  first  established  in  Sligo ; 
with  soap  boiling  and  candle  making  establishments — Miller's 
in  Old  Market  Street,  Richard  Anderson's  in  Market  Street, 
John  Street's,  in  Hadcliffe  Street ;  with  several  tanneries,  notably 
Corkran's  in  Corkran's  Mall,  and  Corriston's  at  the  Market  Cross ; 
with  paper  mills  at  Ballincar;  and  with  the  linen  trade,  the 
most  extensive  and  remunerative  industry  which  has  ever  existed 


412  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


in  either  town  or  county,  which  is  utterly  gone  without  leaving 
after  it  the  slightest  memorial  of  its  existence — the  Linen  Hall, 
built  in  1764  as  its  head- quarters,  being  now  incorporated  with 
the  Imperial  hotel. 

Of  various  handicrafts  employing  a  great  number  of  hands, 
both  in  the  town  and  county,  many  have  disappeared,  or  almost 
disappeared ;  such  as  those  of  potters,  who  manufactured  crocks, 
basins,  milk  vessels,  and  other  articles  of  coarse  pottery ;  turners, 
who  made  wooden  dishes,  platters,  and  sundry  domestic  vessels 
or  utensils ;  brogue  makers,  the  most  numerous  trade  fraternity 
in  the  county,  though  now  without  a  single  representative, 
perhaps;  shoemakers  and  bootmakers  who,  so  late  as  the 
O'Connell  Centenary,  mustered  eighty-four  in  the  town,  but 
count  now  only  sixteen  or  so,  the  reduction  being  due  to  machine 
work  and  gutta  percha  boots  and  shoes ;  tailors  reduced  to  a 
tenth  of  their  former  numbers,  by  the  importation  of  ready-made 
goods;  leather  breeches  makers,  who  turned  out  leather  breeches 
for  hunters  and  other  hard  riders,  at  a  period  when  people  passed 
much  more  of  their  time  in  the  saddle  than  they  do  at  present ; 
hatters  so  numerous  that  they  filled  all  Hatters'  Lane,  now 
Back  Lane  or  Church  Lane,  and  who  made  felt  hats  so  staunch 
and  solid,  that,  to  use  the  illustration  of  one  who  wore  the 
article,  you  might  bale  a  boat  with  them  ;  and — to  say  nothing 
now  of  others — coopers,  who  must  have  been  very  numerous,  as 
they  were  connected  in  dozens  with  the  breweries,  distilleries, 
and  slaughter  houses  of  the  town. 

Mention  of  the  slaughter  houses  reminds  one  of  the  benefit 
they  brought  the  town  in  connexion  with  the  meat  supply  to 
the  army  and  navy.  The  contract  for  the  supply  was  generally 
taken  by  some  prince  merchant  of  London,  who  sublet  it  in 
parts  to  others,  Sligo  coming  in  for  a  good  share.  Those  who 
usually  got  a  part  in  the  town  were  Mr.  Edward  Kelly,  Knox's 
Street,  Mr.  Harry  O'Connor,  Wine  Street,  Mr.  Hugh  Rooney, 
Pound  Street,  Mr.  John  Beatty,  John  Street,  and  Messrs.  Scott 
and  Patrickson,  Key  Street.  The  slaughtering  season  for  beef 
opened  in  October  and  lasted  till  Christmas,  when  the  pork 


HISTORY   OF  SLTGO.  413 


season  began,  which  continued  till  March  ;  and  during  all  this 
time  the  business  afforded  extensive  employment  to  several  classes 
of  persons — to  buyers  and  drivers  in  connexion  with  the  fairs  in 
which  cattle  and  pigs  were  purchased,  the  purchases  being  on  a 
large  scale,  as  many  as  eight  hundred  bullocks  changing  owners  at 
the  Croghan  fair,  and  only  slightly  fewer  at  others;  to  butchers  and 
their  helps  in  the  slaughter  houses ;  to  cutters  and  salters  and 
packers  in  the  curing  places ;  and  to  carters  and  labourers  in 
putting  the  packed  casks  aboard  ship.  An  indirect  benefit  to 
the  poor  of  the  town  and  county,  and  one  of  great  value,  was  the 
large  supply  of  wholesome  meat  put  on  the  local  market,  at  a 
moderate  price,  in  the  heads  and  certain  other  parts  of  the 
carcase  not  comprehended  in  the  general  contract. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  century  there  was  a  good  deal  of  emi- 
gration from  the  port  of  Sligo  to  America.  The  trade  began  about 
the  year  1804,  when  the  merchants  most  extensively  engaged  in 
it  were  the  Messrs.  Everard,  and  Messrs.  Andrew  and  Alexander 
Hume.  In  the  year  1825,  Mr.  Pat  O'Connor  having  got  from 
America  a  cargo  of  flax  seed  by  a  vessel  called  the  Belsay  Castle, 
of  Sunderland,  and  having  nothing  else  to  load  her  with  for  the 
'return  voyage,  fitted  her  up  for  emigrants,  many  of  whom  were 
taken  on  board  and  landed  safe  in  St.  John's,  Newfoundland. 
Of  the  passengers  brought  out  on  this  occasion  by  the  Belsay 
Castle,  seventy  had  their  passage  money  paid  by  the  noted 
Thady  Conlon.  While  engaged  in  his  biblical  labours  and 
speculations,  ^Thady  found  means  to  collect  money  in  England 
for  this  purpose,  and  in  selecting  persons  to  be  sent  out,  he  gave 
the  preference,  first,  to  members  of  his  own  family  and,  next,  to 
inhabitants  of  Tireragh  generally,  so  that  the  Conlon  and 
Tireragh  element  must  still  be  pretty  considerable  in  the  popula- 
tion of  St.  John's,  The  cost  per  head  of  emigration  was  £2  for 
others,  but  thirty  shillings  for  Thady  Conlon's  seventy,  Thady 
having  bargained  for  this  reduction  in  consideration  of  the  num- 
bers he  was  putting  on  board.  At  this  passage  money  Mr, 
O'Connor  supplied  water  and  fuel,  the  passengers  procuring 
their  own  food,  which  consisted  for  the  most  part  of  potatoes 


414  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


and  salt  herrings,  each  passenger  taking  with  him  a  sack  of 
potatoes  and  a  few  dozen  of  the  fish. 

In  1830,  Mr.  O'Connor  sent  out  the  Argo,  a  vessel 
of  his  own,  which  though  only  of  164  tons,  took  out 
156  souls,  including  Mr.  Peter  O'Connor  who  made  the 
voyage  in  order  to  secure  humane  treatment  for  the 
passengers.  The  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1846  gave  an 
impulse  to  emigration  from  Sligo  and  from  other  ports,  the 
vessels  which  came  from  America  freighted  with  bread  stuffs 
taking  'out  emigrants  in  return.  While  the  business  lasted  it 
occasioned  the  circulation  of  money  in  the  town  ;  for  straitened 
as  were  most  of  the  emigrants  for  means,  they  had  something  to 
pay  for  lodging  and  necessary  purchases ;  and  the  conveyance 
of  themselves  and  their  provisions  to  the  Pool  where  the  vessels 
were  moored  and  the  passengers  embarked,  gave  employment  to 
boatmen,  carters,  and  labourers. 

The  following  extract  from  a  report  of  a  meeting  of  the  old 
Enniskillen  and  Sligo  Railway  Company,  held  in  Dublin,  on  the 
10th  October,  1845,  nnder  the  chairmanship  of  Lord  Palmerston, 
will  be  interesting  to  many  : — 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  Commissioners'  Report  on  Railways  in  Ireland,  that 
the  imports  and  exports  of  Sligo  are  greater  than  any  other  on  the  North 
Western  Coast  of  Ireland.  In  the  year  1835  they  amounted  in  value  to 
£494,182,  since  which  period  the  trade  has  been  gradually  increasing — the 
value  of  the  exports  alone  for  the  past  year  (1844)  being  £758,400,  as  appears 
by  the  following  table,  with  a  proportionate  increase  on  the  imports  : — 

AVERAGE  TRADE  or  SLIGO  FOB  SEASON  1844. 

Quantity.            Description.  Average  Value.     Total  Value. 

70,000  pigs  slaughtered  and  shipped  -  £3                 £210,000 

10,000    „     exported  alive  -        2                      20,000 

7,000  fat  cattle,  slaughtered  and  shippe  10  70,000 

12,000        „        shipped  alive       -  -  12                    14,400 

70,000  firkins  butter  -        3                   210,000 

.  20,000  tons  oats  •        3                   110,000 

12,000  tons  oatmeal  -  10  per  ton      120,000 

4,000  barrels  wheat  .         1  per  barrel     4,000 

Total  value    -    £758,400 

[This  is  exclusive  of  sheep,  eggs,  fowl,  and  several  other  articles,  the  valuation 
of  which  has  not  yet  been  obtained.]— Sligo  Journal,  Oct.  24th,  1845. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  415 

The  chief  centre  of  employment  at  present  in  Sligo,  is 
Messrs.  McNeil  and  Sons'  establishment,  in  Lynn's  Place.  What 
was,  a  century  ago,  a  portion  of  the  sea  shore,  washed  regularly 
by  the  tides,  is  now  the  busiest  hive  of  human  industry  in  either 
town  or  county.  The  numbers  employed  have  fallen  off  some- 
what of  late,  but  there  are  still  near  300  hands  in  the  concern 
receiving  wages,  which  range  from  3s.  6d.  a  week  to  £1  or  more, 
the  work  hours  being  from  7  o'clock,  a.m.,  to  6J  p.m.,  with 
two  intervals  of  three-quarters  of  an  hour  each  for  meals. 

Though  punctuality  is  not  generally  supposed  to  be  a  leading 
quality  of  Irishmen,  nothing  can  exceed  the  regularity  with 
which  the  men  keep  up  to  time,  as  well  in  the  morning  as  at 
their  meal  hours ;  and  the  ease  and  precision  with  which  they 
fall  into  their  respective  places  on  getting  inside  the  factory,  is 
highly  creditable  to  them,  so  that  a  visitor  is  at  a  loss  to  know 
which  most  to  admire — the  complex  movements  of  vast  ranges 
of  machinery,  or  the  dexterity  of  the  men  and  boys  who  regulate 
and  control  all  this  mechanical  action.  The  curious  are  not 
less  interested  in  examining  the  admirable  processes  by  which 
the  manufactured  objects  are  produced,  than  in  considering  the 
diversity  of  these  objects — bobbins,  of  various  sorts  and  sizes, 
for  linen  and  woollen  factories ;  handles  for  all  implements,  of 
the  pick,  hammer,  sledge,  hatchet,  and  edge  kinds  ;  articles  for 
the  dock  yards  and  ships  of  the  navy,  and  tools  for  the  pioneers, 
as  well  as  poles  and  staffs  for  the  engineers,  of  the  army.  One 
cannot  fail  to  admire  the  economy  as  well  as  skill  with  which 
the  concern  is  managed,  every  sound  piece  of  timber,  large  and 
small,  being  manufactured,  while  the  rejected  or  refuse  pieces 
are  used  instead  of  coal,  for  heating  the  two  steam  engines, 
which  work  the  machinery,  or  are  put  aside  and  sold  for  fuel 
to  the  poor,  who  run  upon  them}  as  making  the  cheapest  and 
pleasantest  fire  they  can  have. 

It  is  only  by  visiting  the  place  and  observing  the  large 
quantities  of  timber  constantly  coming  in  from  all  quarters, 
one  can  realize  what  an  amount  of  employment  the  factory 
supplies,  as  it  keeps  going  not  only  the  army  of  mechanics  and 


416  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


labourers  on  the  spot,  but  numbers  through  the  country  who 
are  engaged  in  cutting  down  the  timber,  moving  it  through  the 
woods  to  the  roadway,  and  conveying  it  to  Sligo.  Nor  is  it 
from  Sligo  and  the  adjoining  counties  alone  the  Messrs. 
McNeil  obtain  their  supply,  for  they  import  largely  from 
Norway  and  America,  as  they  also  export  to  suitable  markets 
in  England  and  Scotland,  what  is  known  as  "green"  timber, 
that  is,  the  trees  just  as  they  come  from  the  forest.  It  will 
be  seen  then,  that  the  Messrs.  McNeil  give  large  employment 
elsewhere  as  well  as  in  Sligo,  and  on  sea  as  well  as  on  land ; 
for,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  vessels  that  they  charter,  they 
have  a  steamer  of  1,500  tons,  constantly  afloat  bringing  them 
birch  from  the  Baltic. 

The  old  established  firm  of  O'Connor  and  Cullen  are  large 
employers.  Their  saw  mill  in  Union  Street,  is  said  to  be  one 
of  the  most  extensive  in  the  three  Kingdoms,  and  to  be  fitted 
up  with  the  most  modern  and  best  machinery  and  appliances 
for  cutting,  planing,  and  moulding  timber.  In  this  concern, 
which  covers  three  acres,  and  their  two  other  yards,  where 
building  materials  of  all  kinds  are  stored  and  sold,  Messrs. 
O'Connor  and  Cullen  give  constant  employment  to  mechanics 
and  labourers;  and  the  extent  of  their  transactions  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact,  that  nearly  all  the  houses  erected  within 
the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  in  the  county  Sligo,  and  not  a  few 
in  the  neighbouring  counties,  have  been  built  with  materials 
purchased  from  these  merchants. 

Within  the  last  few  years  two  considerable  concerns  in  the 
same  line  of  business  have  been  opened  in  Sligo,  and  are  now 
in  active  work — one  in  Bridge  Street,  belonging  to  Messrs. 
O'Connor,  Walsh,  and  Company;  and  the  other  in  Knox's 
Street,  the  property  of  the  Sligo  Wood  and  Iron  Company. 


CHAPTER  XYII. 

COOLERRA. 

THE  district  of  Coolerra,  including  the  two  parishes  of  Killa- 
spugbrone  and  Kilmacowen,  belongs  now  to  the  ecclesiastical 
union  of  St.  John's. 

The  peninsula  of  Coolerra  (recte  Cuil  Irra)  is  bounded  on  the 
west  by  the  sea,  on  the  east  by  Lough  Gill,  on  the  north,  by  the 
Sligo  river,  and  on  the  south,  partly  by  Ballysadare  river,  and 
partly  by  the  heights  of  Glenagoola  and  Slieve  da  En.  John 
O'Donovan  in  one  place  *  adopts  these  boundaries,  which  make 
Coolerra  co-extensive  with  the  parishes  of  St.  John,  Kilmacowen, 
and  Killaspugbrone ;  but  in  another  place,  f  forgetting,  appa- 
rently, what  he  had  said,  he  confines  the  district  to  the  two 
parishes  of  Killaspugbrone  and  Kilmacowen.  The  latter  would 
seem  to  be  the  popular  idea  at  the  present  time,  but  two  cen- 
turies ago,  when  the  deed  for  the  Partition  of  Sligo  was  drawn  up, 
Coolerra  was  regarded  as  comprising  the  whole  of  the  three 
parishes  mentioned.  J 

On  examining  the  district  you  find  that,  with  the  exception 
of  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Knocknarea,  where  the  fall 
is  rapid  and  shelving,  the  ground  descends  gradually  on  the  one 
side  from  Knocknarea  towards  Cairns,  and  on  the  other  from 
Cairns  towards  Knocknarea,  thus  forming  a  graceful  curve ; 
while,  taking  the  tract  north  and  south,  you  see  the  northern 

*  "  Cuil  Irra  is  a  district  bounded  on  the  N  East  and  East  by  the  river  Sligo 
and  Lough  Gill,  and  on  the  "West  and  S  West,  by  the  river  and  strand  of 
Ballysadare." — Letter  of  John  O'Donovan  to  Thomas  O'Connor  in  Ordnance 
Survey  Letter  Book  for  County  Sligo. 

t  Note  to  the  year  511  in  his  edition  of  the  Four  Masters. 

J  "  The  parishes  of  St.  John,  Kilmacowen,  and  Killaspugbrone,  called  Cul- 
luren." — Tripartite  Indenture,  etc. 

VOL.  I.  2D 


418  HISTOEY   OF  SLIGO. 


parts  sloping  gently  to  the  bay  of  Sligo,  but  the  southern  region, 
as  well  along  Ballysadare  bay,  as  along  the  heights  of  Glena- 
goola,  terminating  steeply,  more  especially  about  the  Curragh, 
which  is  a  marsh  not  unfrequently  covered  with  water,  except 
where  it  is  traversed  by  the  high-road  between  Ballydrehid  and 
Sligo.  The  interior  of  the  southern  half  of  the  peninsula,  and 
more  particularly  Carrick  Henry  and  Carrowgobbodagh,  is 
broken  up  into  hillocks  covered  with  scant  grass,  and  sometimes 
with  furze  and  whitethorn,  but  with  so  thin  a  coat  of  soil  as  to 
remind  one  of  Virgil's  lines  : — 

Difficiles  primum  terrse,  collesque  maligni 
Tennis  ubi  argilla,  et  dumosis  calculus  arvis. 

These  hillocks  generally  surround  bowl-shaped  hollows,  many 
of  which  contain  water,  one  of  the  best  known  of  them  going  by 
the  name  of  the  Punch-bowl.  The  surface  of  Coolerra  is  still 
largely  covered  with  drift  boulders  detached,  in  the  ice  age,  from 
the  Ox  Mountains,  though  great  numbers  of  those  rocks  have, 
in  the  course  of  time,  been  sunk  in  the  earth,  many  used  for 
road  metal,  and  many  employed  in  the  erection  of  stone  houses 
and  fences.  It  is  these  fences,  ranging  from  three  to  six  feet  in 
height,  which  have  made  the  district  one  of  the  best  frequented 
and  most  fashionable  hunting  fields  in  Ireland.  Any  day  in  the 
season  you  may  see  on  the  ground  scores  of  riders,  including  a 
good  number  of  ladies;  while  equipages  of  all  kinds  range  the 
roads,  and  crowds  of  men  and  boys  flit  from  hill  to  hill  after  the 
sport,  the  whole  scene  begetting  an  exhilaration,  felt  alike  by 
hounds,  horses,  sportsmen,  and  spectators. 

The  district  of  Coolerra — even  leaving  Sligo  out  of  the  account 
— is  more  than  ordinarily  populous,  containing  the  villages 
of  Strandhill,  Culleenamore,  Breeogue,  Drumiskibbole ;  a  goodly 
sprinkling  of  detached  farm-houses — some  perched  on  the  hill 
tops,  some  nestling  in  the  hollows,  and  others  reposing  on  the 
declivities,  all  well  whitewashed,  and  most  of  them  girt 
with  whitethorn  and  other  bushes;  and  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  imposing  residences,  Mr.  Walker's,  at  Rathcarrick, 
Mr,  Barrett's,  at  Culleenamore,  Mr.  Phibbs's,  at  Seafield,  Mr. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  419 


Cochrane's,  at  Grange,  the  Misses  Cochrane's,  at  Glen  Lodge, 
Mr.  Walsh's,  at  Breeogue,  Mr.  Chambers's,  at  Cloverhill,  and 
some  others. 

A  good  view  of  most  of  Coolerra  may  be  had  from  the  north 
side  of  Sligo  bay.  Taking  your  stand  on  the  Upper  Rosses  you 
have  under  the  eye  the  best  part  of  the  district — at  the 
north-east  declivity  of  Knocknarea,  several  beautiful  concave 
sweeps  of  well-planted  and  variously  tinted  ground,  on  one 
of  which  lies  embosomed  Mr.  Walker's  neat  and  cheerful  resi- 
dence amid  trim  little  groves  of  various  forms — crescents,  circles, 
and  ovals ;  further  east  the  fine  fields  of  Scardan  sloping  down 
symmetrically  to  the  shore;  next  to  them  Cumen  Head,  looking 
out  to  sea,  like  a  vigilant  water-guard  on  duty;  and  between 
Cumen  and  Sligo,  a  rich,  cultivated,  picturesque  tract,  adorned 
with  several  elegant  suburban  villas,  set  off  with  lawns, 
paddocks,  plantations,  and  pleasure  grounds. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  peninsula  is  in  tillage.  Cereal  and 
root  crops  are  grown  on  about  half  of  the  land  that  adjoins,  on 
either  side,  the  high  road  from  Ballydrehid  to  Sligo,  including 
the  fine  farm  of  Tawnefortis,  which  a  Scotchman,  Mr.  Petrie, 
has  laid  out  and  cultivated  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of 
high  Scotch  farming.  About  the  same  proportion  of  the  stretch 
along  the  sea  from  Strandhill  to  Sligo  is  tilled  ;  and  some  of  this 
tract,  more  especially  the  portion  belonging  to  Mr.  Walker, 
could  compete  successfully  with  any  equal  area  of  the  Scotch 
Lowlands  for  the  neatness  and  symmetry  of  the  fields  and  fences, 
the  processes  of  the  cultivation,  and  the  richness  of  the  crops. 
Still  larger  scopes  of  the  south  and  south-western  sides  are  under 
crops  ;  but  the  fields  are  small,  averaging  hardly  an  acre,  except- 
ing those  of  the  late  Mr.  Walsh  of  Breeogue,  who  farmed  on  a 
large  scale.  More,  however,  than  two-thirds  of  Coolerra,  even 
excluding  the  rough  lands  of  Knocknarea  and  Cairns,  are  per- 
manently under  grass,  more  particularly  about  the  centre,  where 
Cloverhill,  Graigue,  Carrowmore,  and  other  large  sweeps  are 
nearly  all  green. 

Knocknarea — Hill  of  the  MOOD,  according  to  the  Venerable 


420  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 

Charles  O'Connor ;  *  Hill  of  the  Executions,  according  to  John 
O'Donovan ;  t  Hill  of  the  King,  according  to  many  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Coolerra;  and  Hill  of  the  smooth  flat  top,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  present  writer,!  is  as  picturesque  an  elevation 
as  Ireland  contains.  Its  solitary  situation  renders  it  conspicuous 
for  a  great  distance,  and  from  all  sides.  With  its  back  to  the 
sea,  and  its  right  and  left  sides  respectively  to  the  Ballysadare 
and  Sligo  estuaries ;  and  with  all  the  mountains  of  Sligo  and 
Leitrim  converging  in  marshalled  order  around,  it  looks  like  a 
general  officer,  occupying  a  detached  position,  and  reviewing 
his  battalions. 

Observing  it  in  itself,  you  find  the  west  side  a  sheer,  naked 
precipice,  and  the  north  side  a  succession  of  retiring  terraces, 
covered  partly  with  grass,  and  partly  with  rich  purple  heath. 
Looking  from  a  distance  at  the  south  and  east  sides,  which  are 
quite  like  one  another,  you  are  struck  with  the  extreme  regu- 
larity, smoothness,  and  polish  of  the  contour,  causing  you  to 
regard  the  hill  as  a  work  of  art,  rather  than  a  rough  and  ready 
production  of  Nature.  With  its  smooth  summit,  dipping  slightly 
at  either  end,  its  overhanging  brow,  and  its  swelling  sides,  it 
reminds  one  of  a  Titanic  dish-cover,  Misgan  Meave  occupying 
the  place,  and  serving  the  purpose,  of  the  handle. 

The  Misgan  is  a  much  larger  structure  than  one  would  take 
it  to  be  at  a  first  view.  In  1761  Venerable  Charles  O'Connor 
reported  it  to  be  "  thirty  paces  in  conic  height,  and  twenty-six 
paces  in  diameter  at  the  top;"  in  1799  Beranger  and  Bigari, 
the  artists  employed  by  Right  Hon.  W.  Burton,  speak  of  it  as 
"  a  huge  cairn  of  small  stones,  60  feet  high  ;  "  §  about  the  same 
time  Mr.  Roger  Walker,  Q.C.,  of  Rathcarrick,  describes  it  in 
detail  as  "  an  enormous  heap  of  small  stones  of  oval  figure,  630 
feet  circumference  at  the  base,  79  feet  slope  on  one  side,  67  at 
the  other,  and  the  area  at  the  top  100  "feet  in  its  longest 

*  Letter  from  Strandhill,  dated  27th  August,  1761. 

t  Letter  of  John  O'Donovan,   dated  Sligo    July  2nd,  1836,  >nd  given  in 
Ordnance  Survey  Letter  Book  for  County  Sligo. 
£  See  ante,  p.  54. 
§  Kilkenny  Archceological  Journal,  Vol.  XL,  p.  131. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  421 


diameter,  and  85  in  its  shortest;"*  in  1837  Dr.  Petrie  found 
the  cairn  to  be  but  590  feet  in  circumference  at  the  base,  and 
80  feet  in  its  largest  diameter  at  the  summit ;  f  and  on  a 
recent  visit,  the  writer  ascertained  by  measurement  that  Mr. 
Walker's  figures  still  represent,  with  sufficient  accuracy,  the 
present  dimensions  of  the  monument.  It  may  be  mentioned 
that,  while  small  stones  belonging,  for  the  most  part,  to  the 
limestone  of  the  hill,  compose  the  cairn,  a  few  whin  stone 
boulders,  like  those  of  Carrowmore,  stand  on  points  of  the 
circumference  at  the  base,  thus  suggesting  that  a  circle  of  such 
stones  originally  inclosed  and  defined  the  whole  base  of  the 
structure. 

To  the  south  and  north  of  the  Misgan  are  some  remains  of 
antiquity  which  call  for  a  word  of  notice.  To  the  south,  and 
within  a  hundred  yards  or  so  of  the  great  cairn,  are  three 
clusters  of  large  Ox  Mountain  stones,  each  of  which  must  have 
once  formed  a  circle  like  those  of  Carrowmore — one,  as  far  as 
can  be  judged  now,  having  been  about  six  yards  in  diameter, 
another  eight,  and  the  third  eleven. 

About  eighty  yards  to  the  north  of  Misgan  Meave,  are  the 
remains  of  a  small  rath  or  cashel,  seventeen  yards  in  diameter ; 
and  thirty  yards  further  on,  in  the  same  direction,  the  remains 
of  another,  thirty-two  yards  in  diameter.  The  surrounding  fence 
of  the  latter  was  formed  of  the  local  limestone,  which  has  been 
reduced  by  the  weather  to  shingle.  In  the  centre  are  a  few 
white  stone  boulders,  and  a  large  limestone  flag,  of  six  feet  by 
four,  which,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  rested  originally  on  the 
boulders,  from  which  it  was  removed,  very  probably,  with  the 
object  of  excavating  and  exploring  the  ground  under  it. 
Judging  by  the  extent  of  this  latter  fort,  and  the  large  quantity 

*  Ibidem. 

t  Stokes'Lifeof  Petrie — p.  255— Petrie  accounts  for  the  diminution  of  Misgan 
Meave  by  its  having  been  "  the  common  resort  of  the  people  of  Cuil  Irra  for 
stones  for  building  purposes,  though  the  quarries  of  limestone  at  hand  might  be 
considered  inexhaustible."  There  is  no  foundation  for  this  account.  Stones 
were  never  brought  down  from  Misgan  Meave,  either  for  building  or  any  other 
purpose. 


422  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


of  debris  within  and  around  it,  it  must  have  been  an  important 
structure  in  its  day,  and  was,  not  improbably,  the  Bath  Righ- 
hairt  said  by  the  Four  Masters  to  have  been  built  by  Fulman, 
anno  mundi,  3,501. 

As  Knocknarea  is  conspicuous  from  all  quarters,  so  in  turn 
it  commands  a  singularly  extensive  and  varied  prospect — earth 
and  ocean,  still  lake  and  rapid  river,  level  plain  and  lofty 
mountain,  regions  rich  with  the  cultivation  of  centuries,  and 
tracts  as  wild  as  nature  first  formed  them.  If  it  costs  some 
effort  to  reach  the  summit,  the  fatigue  is  forgotten  the  moment 
you  arrive  there  and  look  at  the  wonderful  panorama  around 
you.  "From  the  platform  ofMeava's  earn,"  writes  the  Vener- 
able Charles  O'Connor,  "  I  took  a  prospect  on  which  I  feasted 
for  more  than  half  an  hour.  The  counties  of  Donegal,  Deny, 
Fermanagh,  Leitrim,  and  Longford,  bounded  my  view  to  the 
North  and  East;  that  northward  was  terminated  by  the  pro- 
digious cliffs  above  Killibegs,  divided  from  the  mountains  of 
Boylagh  Barnsmore,  stretching  in  a  chain  of  pointed  hills  west- 
ward ;  nearer  me  were  the  vast  cliffs  Ben  Golban,  Ben  Basgny, 
Ben  Boe,  and  Collooney.  These  spiry  and  rugged  hills  exhibit 
numberless  wild  irregularities,  and  yet  collect  most  of  the  waters, 
which  fall  from  their  sides  into  one  noble  basin,  which  they 
surround,  called  Lough  Gill  .  .  .  Turning  my  eyes  south- 
ward, my  view  extended  beyond  the  Curlew  mountains,  and 
took  in  the  great  plain  of  Connaught,  called  Maghery,  which 
ran  out  of  sight  like  the  immense  ocean  west  of  me."  It  says 
little  for  the  tastes  of  some  Sligo  people,  that,  though  living 
within  a  couple  of  miles  of  Knocknarea,  few  of  them  ever  think 
of  enjoying  the  glorious  prospect  on  which  the  refined  O'Connor 
feasted  with  such  exquisite  delight. 

A  most  remarkable  spot  on  Knocknarea,  is  that  called  The 
Glen,  on  the  southern  slope  of  the  hill.  At  a  distance  it  appears 
to  be  only  a  line  of  brushwood,  running  quite  straight  from 
west  to  east,  but  on  reaching  the  place  you  find  it  a  cut  or 
cleft  in  the  mountain,  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  and 
of  pretty  uniform  depth  and  width  the  whole  way.  Having 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  423 


entered  the  cut  from  the  west  by  a  short  avenue  of  hazel,  you 
see  the  sides  of  solid  rock  rise,  right  and  left  of  you,  as  perpendi- 
cularly as  if  they  were  formed  by  rule  and  plummet,  and  the 
horizontal  strata  of  limestone  superimposed  regularly  one  over 
the  other  like  courses  of  masonry ;  the  side  to  the  left,  that  next 
the  hill,  rising  to  a  height  of  about  60  feet,  and  that  to  the  right, 
to  a  height  of  about  40  feet,  while  the  distance  between  the 
sides  is  40  feet  or  so.  And  these  figures  would  serve  for  any 
other  section  of  the  glen,  as  the  dimensions  are  nearly  uniform 
all  through.  So  striking  indeed  is  this  uniformity  as  to  suggest 
the  idea,  that  some  monster  mysterious  grooving  machine, 
directed  by  superhuman  power  and  skill,  must  have  been  em- 
ployed to  cut  clean  out  the  masses  of  rock  which  lay  once 
between  the  sides.  Geologists  will  find  it  difficult  to  account 
for  the  phenomenon,  though  the  matter  lies  within  their  pro- 
vince. One  may  date  the  fissure  from  the  first  cooling  of  the 
earth's  crust,  and  say,  that  owing  to  some  local  disturbance,  the 
sides  parted  asunder,  when  the  earth  was  near  cooled,  and  never 
since  closed ;  others  may  ascribe  it  to  an  earthquake  of  later 
date ;  while  a  third  may  set  it  down  with  much  greater  pro- 
bability, to  the  solvent  action  of  water,  which  rolling  down  the 
slopes  of  the  hill,  through  geological  ages,  sank  here  into  the 
soft  limestone  rock,  formed  for  itself  a  passage  to  the  neighbour- 
ing sea,  and  carried  away  with  it,  time  after  time,  in  chemical 
solution,  the  portions  of  the  mountain  that  have  been  displaced. 
To  each  of  these  theories  there  are  special  objections,  as  well  as 
the  one  common  to  all  three,  that  arises  from  the  extreme 
regularity  of  form  which  appears  all  through  the  trench,  and 
which  it  is  hard  to  reconcile  with  one  or  other  of  the  hypotheses 
mentioned. 

Notwithstanding  the  depth  of  the  glen,  vegetation  is  luxuriant 
in  it.  What  seemed  at  a  distance  a  row  of  bushes,  turns  out  to 
be  the  tops  of  lofty  trees,  some  sycamore,  a  few  beech,  but  by 
far  the  greater  number  ash,  most  of  the  last  named  springing 
out  of  crevices  at  different  heights  in  the  rocky  sides ;  several  of 
them,  however,  starting  from  the  floor  and  shooting  up  so 


424  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


vigorously  as  to  overtop  the  others.  The  floor  itself  is  covered 
•with  a  growth  of  rank  grass  and  weeds,  the  latter  attaining  an 
abnormal  size,  as,  for  example,  a  nettle  which  lay  across  the 
path,  and  which  measured  more  than  eight  feet  in  length,  the 
leaf  being  eight  inches  broad.  Much  larger  specimens  of  the 
weed  might  be  found  by  searching  for  them.  If  the  floor  were 
bored  here  and  there,  and  the  deposits  examined,  light  would 
probably  he  thrown  on  the  history  and  character  of  this  curious 
lusus  naturce,  which  seems  to  deserve  more  attention  than  it 
has  hitherto  received. 

Near  the  Glen  lies  the  district  of  Grange,  divided  now  into 
four  Granges — Primrose  Grange,  Grange  West,  Grange  East, 
and  Grange  North — corresponding  with  the  four  quarters  of 
which  the  district  formerly  consisted.  In  each  of  three  of  the 
baronies  into  which  the  county  is  divided — Corran,  Tireragh, 
and  Carbury — we  find  a  spot  called  Grange  : — in  Corran,  in  the 
parish  of  Emlagfad,  a  little  to  the  west  of  Ballymote,  though 
the  name  has  nearly  died  out  there  ;  in  Tireragh,  in  the  parish 
of  Templeboy,  where  we  have  Grangemor  and  Grangebeg,  not 
far  from  Aughris  Head ;  and  in  Carbury,  two  of  those  denomi- 
nations, one  the  well  known  village  of  Grange,  in  the  parish  of 
Ahamlish,  and  the  other,  this  Grange  of  Coolerra,  All  those 
places  belonged  to  the  great  Cistercian  Abbey  of  Boyle,*  and 

*  In  a  Chancery  Inquisition  of  James  I.,  taken  at  Sligo,  8th  April  1606, 
before  Nicholas  Brady,  the  jurors  find  that  Tomultagh  McDermot,  late  Abbot 
of  the  Monastery  of  Boyle,  was  seized  of  one  quarter,  called  the  Graung  of 
Sleight  Brian  (in  Coolerra),  ...  of  another  grangia  with  appurtenances, 
called  the  grandge  of  Sleight  Teigh  O'Hart,  ...  of  the  town  of  Grainge, 
in  the  barony  of  Corran,  ...  of  another  grange  called  Grangemor,  in 
Tireragh  .  .  .  and  of  one  other  grange,  called  Grangebeg,  in  the  same  barony. 

And  in  an  Inquisition  concerning  the  possessions  of  Boyle  Abbey,  taken 
on  the  12th  May,  1604,  the  jurors  find  among  the  possessions,  "Grange- 
namanagh  and  Templenamanagh,  in  McDonogh's  country  of  Corran,  Great  and 
Little  Grange  in  0  Dowd's  country  of  Tireragh  ;  a  castle  and  eight  cottages, 
with  the  appurtenances,  in  the  town  of  Grange,  of  Coulkirrie  (Coolerra)  ;  and  a 
new  castle  built  by  Hugh  O'Harte  ;  and  seven  cottages  in  the  town  of  Grange, 
in  O'Connor  Sligo's  country."  Inishmore  or  Church  Island,  Lough  Gill,  be- 
longed to  Grange  Sleight  Brian. 


HISTORY   OF   SL1GO.  425 


had  their  common  name  from  their  common  destination.  In 
medieval  Latin  grangia — from  which  we  have  the  English  word 
grange,  and  the  Irish  grainseach,  signifies  a  barn  or  corn  farm 
belonging  to  religious  ;*  and  the  granges  of  the  county  Sligo,  as 
well  as  those  of  Roscommon  and  Leitrim,  got  the  name  from 
being  places  in  which  the  monks  of  Boyle  grew  and  collected 
and  stored  their  grain.  Other  religious  houses  had  similar 
places  in  the  county,  but  it  would  appear  that  the  term  "  grange  " 
was  confined  to  those  of  Boyle  Abbey. 

Carns-hill  or  Cams,  which  terminates  the  eastern  extremity 
of  Coolerra,  though  only  392  feet  high,  is  a  very  picturesque 
elevation  and  not  devoid  of  boldness  when  looked  at  from  north, 
east,  or  south,  on  which  sides  the  gradients  are  sharp ;  while,  on 
the  west  side,  the  incline  is  so  long  and  gentle,  that  the  spectator 
hardly  realizes  the  full  height  of  the  hill.  Unlike  Knocknarea, 
which  is  in  great  part  naked  rock,  Cams  is  covered  all  round 
with  verdure  from  the  base  to  the  summit — the  slopes  over  the 
river  and  lake  being  equal  in  freshness  and  vividness  to  the 
richest  stretches  in  the  county. 

A  good  part  of  the  hill  on  the  east  and  south  sides  is  wooded, 
and  the  timber  is  fine  and  flourishing,  owing,  much  more  to  the 
proximity  of  water  than  to  the  character  of  the  soil,  which  is 
rather  shallow  and  poor.  Some  time  ago  the  trees,  here  and 
there,  were  so  crowded  that  they  hardly  afforded  one  a  passage 
between  them,  but  the  storm  of  October,  1883,  which  wrought 
such  havoc  in  the  woods  and  plantations  of  the  county,  raged  so 
violently  in  spots  around  the  hill,  as  to  level  everything  before 
it,  to  tear  away  and  toss  about  the  heaviest  trees — trunks,  roots, 
and  branches — with  the  fragments  of  rock  in  which  they  grew, 


*  "  Originally  a  place  where  the  rents  and  tithes,  paid  in  grain  to  religions 
houses  were  deposited  ;  from  granum,  grain." — Imperial  Dictionary. 

Grangia. — Area  seu  locus  ubi  bladum,  teritur  ;  aire  tout  lieu  ou  Von  bat  le 
ble.  Prsedium,  villa  rustica  ;  ferme  metairie. — L.  Abbe  Mignet. — Lexicon 
Mediae  et  Infimae  Latinitatis. 

Grangia. — A  grange,  a  farm-house. — St  abbs'  Documents  illustrative  of  English 
History. 


426  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


and  to  leave  nothing  standing  over  considerable  spaces.  la 
hearing  persons,  who  witnessed  the  scene,  relate  their  impressions, 
one  would  think  that  no  such  convulsion  visited  the  locality 
since  that  which  shot  the  hill  itself  above  the  surrounding  land. 
The  most  interesting  objects  on  the  hill  are  the  two  earns, 
which  have  given  it  its  name,  and  which  rest  like  crowns  on 
the  two  peaks  into  which  it  is  divided  by  a  deep  hollow  that 
runs  from  the  direction  of  Sligo.  These  earns,  when  viewed 
from  a  distance,  look  somewhat  like  cones  truncated  near  the 
base,  and  are  composed  of  rather  small  stones  which,  as  they 
are  of  the  same  gneiss  formation  as  those  that  lie  scattered  over 
the  rest  of  the  peninsula,  must  have  been  gathered  off  the 
surrounding  land,  and  not  quarried  from  the  underlying  strata, 
which  are  limestone.  History  gives  no  information  of  the 
origin  or  object  of  the  earns,  but  the  Dinsenchus  tells  that  they 
mark  the  graves  of  Omra  and  Romra,  two  chiefs  that  ruled  over 
the  plain  now  submerged  by  Lough  Gill,  before  that  tradition- 
ally fair  and  fertile  region  was  covered  by  the  lake.  *  "Whether 
the  builders  of  the  piles  had  so  vulgar  an  object  in  view,  as  the 
clearance  of  the  land  for  the  benefit  of  their  cattle,  is  not  stated, 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  removal  of  the  stones  from  the  surface 
increased  immensely  the  feeding  powers  of  the  tract.  At  all 
events  the  ground  was  swept  so  clear  that  hardly  a  pebble  was 
left,  so  that  while  the  farm  fences  of  the  rest  of  the  peninsula 
are  built  with  surface  stones,  not  one  of  such  can  be  seen 

*  John  O'Donovan,  quoting  the  Dinsenchus  in  a  letter  to  Thomas  O'Connor, 
given  in  the  Ordnance  Survey  Letter  Book  for  County  Sligo,  and  dated  Septem- 
ber 10th,  1836,  says,  "  Romra  and  Omra  lived  on  the  plains  which  Lough  Gill 
now  covers,"  etc.,  etc.;  but  there  is  no  need  to  trouble  the  reader  with  the 
details  of  this  or  other  legends  and  myths  connected  with  our  lake.  Legends 
and  myths  are  very  well  in  a  way  in  their  proper  time  and  place,  but  they  are 
de  trop  in  regular  history. 

These  earns  stand  due  east  and  west  of  one  another,  and  are  about  equal  in 
size  at  the  base,  the  circumference  of  the  western  one  being  152  yards.  The 
diameter  at  the  top  of  the  same  pile  is  30  yards.  Owing  to  the  trees  that  sur- 
round and  close  in  the  eastern  earn,  it  is  not  easy  to  make  out  its  exact 
dimensions.  At  the  summit  it  is  a  little  less  in  diameter  than  the  other,  but  it 
appears  somewhat  higher  owing  to  the  unevenness  of  the  ground  on  which  it 
rests. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  427 


in  the  miles  of  high  walls  with  which  the  Ormsbys,  about  150 
years  ago,  surrounded  and  intersected  Cams,  nor  in  those  which 
enclose,  on  either  side,  the  noble  avenue  that  leads  down  to 
Belvoir,  the  material  employed  being  invariably  quarried 
limestone. 

Here,  too,  as  in  so  many  other  places,  the  writer  cannot  accept 
present  popular  views.  Though  it  seems  to  be  just  now  the 
general  opinion  that  the  two  circles  of  stone  on  the  so-called 
Cairns-hill  are  sepulchral  earns,  it  would  appear  to  be  far  more 
probable,  if  not  entirely  certain,  that  they  are  the  remains  of 
cashels  or  stone  forts.  For,  in  the  first  place,  they  have  not  the 
usual  conical  shape  of  earns.  Second,  they  are  never  called 
earns  in  our  old  writings.  And,  thirdly,  there  is  no  tradition  of 
their  origin,  which,  considering  their  conspicuous  position,  and 
the  notice  they  must  have  always  attracted,  could  hardly  be  the 
case  if  they  were  of  a  monumental  character  ;  for  as  the  people 
have  their  opinions  regarding  the  person  buried  under  the 
neighbouring  earn  of  Knocknarea,  they  would  hardly  fail  to 
have  a  view,  be  it  right  or  wrong,  respecting  those  interred  in 
these  structures,  if  the  erections  were  supposed,  in  times  past, 
to  be  earns. 

The  writer's  opinion  is,  that  they  were  cashels  or  stone  forts, 
erected  for  the  protection  of  men  and  cattle,  like  the  hundred 
similar  enclosures  of  the  neighbourhood,  with  ramparts,  in  some 
few  cases,  of  stone,  though  generally  of  earth  ;  and  this  opinion 
is  pretty  satisfactorily  established  by  the  names  the  structures 
receive  in  documents  a  couple  of  centuries  old,  as,  for  example, 
the  inquisition  taken  at  Roslee,  in  1616,  where  the  hill  now 
named  Cairns-hill,  is  called  "  Corlis,"  i.e.,  the  Hill  of  Forts ;  in 
the  Book  of  Distribution,  connected  with  the  Acts  of  Settlement 
and  Explanation,  where,  too,  it  gets  the  name  "  Corlish ; "  and 
in  the  Deed  of  Partition  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate,  in  which 
they  are  described  as  "  Carnes,  alias  Badhuns,"  the  latter  word 
signifying  cow  forts.  It  is  fair,  then,  to  conclude  that  in  1616> 
and  previously,  as  well  as  long  subsequently,  they  were  regarded 
simply  as  forts  or  lisses ;  and  that,  in  1687,  the  lawyers  who 


428  HISTORY  OF    SLIGO. 

drew  up  the  Deed  of  Partition  took  them  to  be  cow  forts  or 
Eadhuns,  "  Carnes  "  being  added  as  an  alias  name  to  indicate 
that  the  forts  were  constructed  of  stone  and  not  of  earth. 

Independently  of  these  historical  reasons,  which  seem  conclu- 
sive^ simple  inspection  of  the  objects  in  question  would  show  their 
nature.  The  eastern  circle  is  so  dilapidated,  and  so  closed  in  by 
the  surrounding  trees,  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  a  correct  idea 
of  its  dimensions,  and  one  cannot  be  so  sure  about  it ;  but  the 
western  one,  with  its  rampart,  ten  or  twelve  feet  high,  its  cir- 
cumference at  base  of  456  feet,  its  diameter  at  top  of  ninety  feet, 
and  its  well  denned  passage  to  the  interior  of  the  area,  has  still  all 
the  features  of  a  fort  or  cashel,  and  can  be  nothing  else,  what- 
ever new-fangled  name  it  may  please  people  to  give  it. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  too,  that  they  are  the  only  structures, 
on  or  round  the  hill,  which  could  have  served  for  lisses  or  forts ; 
for,  while  the  neighbouring  tracts  are  studded  with  raths,  there 
is  not  one  on  Cairns-hill,  a  fact  which  proves  that  those  so-called 
-earns  served  as  raths,  as  there  must  have  been  enclosures  for  the 
cattle  of  the  district  here  as  in  all  the  adjoining  townlands. 

Coming  now  to  ecclesiastical  arrangements,  the  peninsula 
was  divided  into  the  three  parishes  of  St.  John's,  Kilmacowen, 
and  Killaspugbrone.  In  the  order  of  time  Killaspugbrone 
came  first ;  for  the  church,  which  developed  later  into  a  parish, 
was  founded  by  St.  Patrick,  and  was  the  first  church  built  in 
Carbur}'.  The  saint  gave  it  in  charge  to  his  disciple  Bronus, 
from  whom  it  took  the  name,  it  has  borne  since,  of  Killaspug- 
brone, that  is,  the  church  of  Bishop  Bronus. 

This  Bronus,  who  is  one  of  the  best  known  of  St.  Patrick's 
•disciples,  and  who  received  marks  of  special  affection  from  the 
saint,  contributed  largely  to  the  propagation  of  the  faith  in  the 
county  Sligo,  not  only  by  making  Killaspugbrone  a  centre  of 
religion  for  the  neighbourhood,  but  also  by  consecrating 
Carellus  bishop  of  Tawnagh,  and  Maneus  bishop  of  Tirerrill.* 

*  Carellum  quern  in  episcopum  ordinarunt    Patricius,  Bronus,    et  Bitseus. 
-Colgan    Trias   Thaumatnrga,  p.  135.       Maneum  quern  ordinavit  episcopus 
Bronus,  films  ignis,  qui  est  in  Caissel-irra,  servus  Dei,  socius  Sancti  Patricii. — 
Id.,  p.  134. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  429 


From  the  Annotations  of  Tirechan,  it  appears  that  Bronus  was 
a  native  of  Coolerra,  being  the  son  of  Icnus,  chief  of  the  dis- 
trict.* Colgau  supposes  the  father  of  the  saint  to  have  been 
called  Ignis  (fire),  and  is  at  a  loss  to  account  for  the  name ;  but 
as  Icnus,  not  Ignis,  is  the  true  reading,  the  difficulty  disappears. 

As  Coolerra  as  well  as  the  rest  of  Lower  Sligo  belonged  at  that 
time  to  Tireragh,  Saint  Patrick  found  it  easy  to  get  a  site  and 
endowment  for  the  church,  being  then  on  the  friendliest  terms 
with  the  sons  of  Awley,  whom  he  had  just  converted,  and  who, 
as  the  chief  rulers  of  the  whole  territory  of  Tireragh,  had  the- 
disposal  of  Coolerra ;  and  it  was  all  the  easier  for  him  to  obtain 
what  he  wanted  in  this  instance,  as  he  intended  to  set  the  son 
of  the  local  chief  over  the  new  foundation. 

It  is  important  to  recollect  the  dependence  of  Lower  Sligo  on 
the  chiefs  of  Tireragh,  as  modern  writers,  whether  from  ignorance 
or  inadvertence,  are  all  silent  upon  the  subject.  And  this  depen- 
dence related  to  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  to  temporal  affairs. 
Such  is  the  want  of  knowledge  on  this  matter  that  the  reader 
will  be  probably  surprised  to  be  told,  that  the  great  district  of 
Carbury,  which  is  now,  and  has  been  for  centuries  so  important 
a  part  of  the  diocese  of  Elphin,  belonged  at  first,  and  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  to  the  diocese  of  Killala.  According  to  the  synod 
of  Rathbreasail,  which  was  held  in  1118,  and  which  fixed  or 
sanctioned  the  limits  of  the  dioceses  of  Ireland,  Killala  extended 
from  Nephin  to  Easroe,  and  from  Cill-Ard-Bile  to  Srah-an- 
Fearainn.  Nephin  and  Easroe  or  Assaroe,  at  Ballyshannon, 
being  well  known,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  intermediate 
stretch,  including  Carbury,  as  well  as  the  remainder  of  the  sea 
coast,  lying  between  the  mouths  of  the  Moy  and  the  Erne. 
Cill-Ard-Bile  and  Srah-an-Fearainn  have  not  been  identified, 
but  the  writer  is  satisfied  that  Cill-Ard-Bile  stood  on  the  pro- 
montory of  Ardelly  in  Erris,  and  that  Srah-an-Fearainn  is  the 
Shramore  of  Union  Wood,  which  lies  in  the  Tirerrill  portion  of 
the  parish  of  Ballysadare.f 

*Venit  in  Muiriscsain  apud  Bronum  tilium  Icni.     .     .     Et  venerunt  trans 
littus  Authuiliin  fines  Icm.—Jrish  Antiquarian  Researches,  Vol.  II.,  p.  xxxi. 
tSee. 


430  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


There  is  no  proof  that  any  of  Bronus'  successors  was  a  bishop, 
but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  such  was  the  case,  as  before  the  synod 
of  K-athbreasail,  which  effected  a  large  reduction  in  the  number 
of  Irish  bishops,  "  almost  every  distinguished  church  in  Ireland 
had  its  bishop."*  Though  St.  Biteus,  who  was  a  bishop,  is 
spoken  of  as  of  Caissel-Irra,f  it  is  much  more  probable  that  he 
lived  there  in  community  with  Bronus,  than  that  he  was,  as 
some  would  have  it,  his  successor ;  for  Bronus  reached  a  very 
advanced  old  age,  having  lived  long  with  Saint  Patrick,  and, 
after  surviving  him,  having  been  much  with  Saint  Brigid.J 
When  writers  speak  of  the  "  diocese "  of  Killaspugbrone,  they 
contemplate  a  state  of  diocesan  jurisdiction,  which  probably  had 
no  existence  at  the  time,  nor  for  some  centuries  later. 
Two  references  to  Killaspugbrone  are  found  in  the  Four 
Masters: — one  under  the  year  511,  which  states  that  "St.  Bron, 
bishop  of  Cuil-Irra,  in  Connaught,  died  on  the  eighth  day  of 
the  month  of  June/'  and  another  under  1306,  telling  that  Peter 
O'Tuathalain,  Vicar  of  Killaspugbrone,  died  ;  and  if  we  add  to 
those  entries  what  we  learn  from  the  list  of  Parish  Priests, 
registered  at  Sligo  in  1704,  namely,  that  John  Dugan  was  then 
Parish  Priest  of  Killaspugbrone,  we  have,  perhaps,  all  the 
information  that  history  affords  regarding  the  succession  of 
rulers  in  that  church. 

A  relic,  or  alleged  relic  of  this  church  claims  a  word  of  notice. 
We  read  in  the  Vita  Tripartita,§  that  one  of  St.  Patrick's  teeth 
having  fallen  out  of  his  mouth  at  Caissel  Irra,  the  saint  gave  it 
to  Bronus  as  a  mark  of  special  affection.  In  after  time  this 
object,  not  unnaturally,  was  held  in  esteem  at  Killaspugbrone  ; 
and  in  the  fourteenth  century,  one  of  the  Berminghams,  Lords 
of  Athenry,  whose  family  was  then  connected  by  property  with 


*  Rev.  Matthew  Kelly,  in  Canibrensis  Eversus,  Vol.  11,  p.  385. 

t  Colgan  Trias  Thaum,,  p.  136. 

J  Idem,  Septima  Vita,  par.  2,  c.  42,  43,  52,  96.  And  Ultan's  Life  of  St. 
Bridget,  c.  39,  40,  41,  etc. 

§  "He  gave  a  tooth  out  of  his  mouth  to  Bishop  Bronus,  because  he  was  dear 
to  Patrick."— Colgan,  Vit.  Trip.,  142. 


HISTORY  OF   SLTGO.  431 


Bally sadare  and  Tireragh,*  had  made  for  it  a  brass  case,  elabor- 
ately ornamented  with  gold  and  silver  relievo  work.-f-  Through 
time,  the  case  with  its  contents  fell  into  lay  hands,  and  after 
having  been  "  the  most  venerated  relic  in  Connaught/'J  was 
often  degraded,  for  lucre  sake,  by  its  new  keepers  to  the  vilest 
uses.  These  abuses  continued,  till  a  zealous  priest,  the  abbot  of 
Cong,  found  a  way  to  obtain  the  relic,  and  put  an  end  to  the 
scandal. 

Without  agreeing  with  Dr.  Petrie,  who  thinks,  apparently  on 
insufficient  grounds,  that  the  present  ruin  "  may  be  well 
supposed  to  be  the  original  structure  erected  for  Bishop  Bronus, 
by  St.  Patrick,  in  the  fifth  century,"§  one  may  go  so  far  as  to 
refer  it  to  about  the  eleventh  century,  but  hardly  to  an  earlier 
date.  It  was  built,  it  is  said,  in  a  cashel  called  Caissel  Irra, 
the  western  cashel,  because  it  stood  on  the  most  western  part  of 
the  spit  of  land,  which  runs  away  from  Knocknarea  westward 
into  the  sea.  From  the  particular  mention  of  the  cashel,  this 
structure  must  have  been  anterior  to  the  church,  for  if  it  were 
erected  at  the  same  time  as  the  church,  or  subsequently,  there 
would  be  nothing  unusual  in  the  circumstance,  as  "each  of  the 
most  celebrated  churches  of  Ireland  was  surrounded  by  a  wall  in 
the  eleventh  century."|| 

No  remains  of  the  cashel  are  now  visible ;  but  Mr.  O'Connor, 
in  the  Ordnance  Survey  Letter  Book  for  the  county  Sligo,  quotes 
Father  Conolly,  a  former  curate  of  the  parish,  as  saying  that 
"  the  cashel  was  visible  the  last  time  he  attended  funerals 
there."  The  structure,  however,  may  be  still  in  situ,  though 

*  Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet,  p.  255. 

f  "  The  Thomas  de  Bramingham,  at  whose  expense  this  case  was  ornamented, 
was  either  sixth  baron  of  Athenry,  who  flourished  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  or  Thomas,  the  eighth  baron,  who  died  in  1374,  or  1376." — 
Life  of  Petrie,  p.  289. 

+  "  In  an  ancient  account  of  Coimaught  in  my  possession,  the  Fiachal 
Phadruigh  is  spoken  of  as  the  most  venerated  relic  in  the  province." — Dr. 
Petrie,  in  Stokes'  Life  of  George  Petrie,  LL.  D.,  p.  290. 

§  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  and  Uses  of  the  Pvound  Towers  of  Ireland,  p.  178. 

||  Fragment  of  old  writing  quoted  in  Miss  Stokes'  Early  Christian  Architec- 
ture in  Ireland,  p.  108. 


432  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 

no  longer  visible,  as  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  of  drifted  sand 
are  now  accumulated  over  the  place  on  which  it  lay.  Only  for 
the  pains  taken  in  recent  years  to  keep  away  the  sand  by 
planting  bent  along  the  shore,  the  walls  of  the  church,  as  well 
as  the  cashel,  would  have  long  since  disappeared  from  view. 
A  characteristic  feature  of  this  church,  is  an  open  in  the  western 
gable,  which  stands  several  feet  from  the  ground,  and  which 
must  have  served  for  an  entrance,  at  a  time  when  there  was  no 
other  door  in  the  edifice.  A  similar  open  is  found  in  Bally- 
sadare  old  church,  and  also  iu  a  church  at  Dungiven,  in  the 
county  Derry,*  but  in  no  other  church  in  Ireland,  as  far  as  the 
writer  knows. 

Kilmacowen — the  church  of  the  sons  of  Owen — is  so  called 
from  the  sons  of  Owen  or  Eugenius,  a  Munster  chieftain.  This 
Eugenius  had  six  sons,  whose  names  were  Becanus,  Culenus, 
Eminus,  Diermitius,  Cormac,  and  Broedan ;  and  the  whole  six 
devoted  themselves  to  the  religious  life  in  different  parts  of 
Ireland,  Two  of  them  remained  in  Munster,  one  passed  to 
Leinster,  another  to  Ulster,  and  two  came  to  Connaught, 
Cormac  and  Diermitius,  or  Diarmaid.  While  Cormac  fixed  his 
abode  near  the  mouth  of  the  Moy,  Diarmaid  settled  in  Coolerra. 
And,  here  again,  we  meet  with  the  dependence  of  Carbury  on 
Tireragh,  for  it  was  one  of  the  Tireragh  chiefs,  named  Dubh 
Flann,  or  Flann  Dubh,  who  granted  Diarmaid  a  site  and  endow- 
ment for  a  religious  house.  No  doubt,  Dunflin,  in  the  parish  of 
Skreen,  has  its  name  from  this  chief. 

The  endowment  was  a  noble  one,  as  it  took  in  the  whole  of 
the  present  parish  of  Kilmacowen,  the  limits  of  the  grant,  as 
detailed  in  Colgan's  Life  of  St.  Cormac,  coinciding  exactly  with 
the  existing  limits  of  that  parish.  For  it  stretched,  we  are  told,f 
from  Droiched  Martra  (bridge  of  Bally drehid)  to  Brugh 


*  Ulster  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Vol.  I.,  p.  306 — Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet, 
p.  22. 

t  Consecravit  namque  illi  ecclesise  dotandse  totum  tractum,  qui  inter  Drolclie-l 
Martra,  et  Brugh-chinnslebhe  versus  occidentem  et  a  Murbhuch  de  Rosbirne 
usque  ad  Aill  choidhin  interjacet. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  433 


Chinnslebhe  (Seafield),  and  from  Murbhuch  de  Rosbirn  (marsh 
of  Kelly's  Town)  to  Aill-choidhin  (mearing  stone  or  flag  at 
Barnasrahy).  Diarmaid's  church  was  at  first  called  the  church 
of  Rosredheadh,  but  from  Diarmaid's  inhabiting  it,  and  having 
with  him,  for  a  time,  some  of  his  brothers,  it  came,  after  a  little, 
to  be  called  the  Church  of  the  Sons  of  Owen. 

How  long  the  religious  retained  the  endowment  there  is  no 
means  now  of  knowing  ;  but  they  must  have  lost  the  whole,  or 
a  large  part  of  it,  before  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century ; 
for,  in  1239,  we  find  Lasarina,  the  daughter  of  Cathal  Crovderg 
O'Conor,  and  the  wife  of  Donnell  More  O'Donnell,  in  possession 
of  Rosbirn,  or  Rosborn,  as  a  part  of  her  dowry,  and  giving  it,  as 
an  offering  in  honour  of  the  Holy  Trinity  and  the  Virgin  Mary, 
to  Clarus  MacMailin  and  the  Canons  of  Lough  Ce.  * 

Whether  the  religious  of  Boyle  retained  in  the  sixteenth 
century  any  beneficial  interest  in  the  lands  they  formerly  owned 
in  the  peninsula  does  not  appear,  but  it  is  certain  they  did  not 
occupy  those  lands  at  that  period.  As  O'Donnell  ousted  the 
religious  of  Kilmacowen,  so  the  O'Connors,  in  turn,  took  away, 
either  in  whole,  or  in  part,  from  the  monks  of  Trinity  Abbey, 
what  the  O'Donnells  bad  given  ;  for  we  find  the  family  of  Brian 
O'Connor  in  possession  of  the  district  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

And  this  may  be  a  suitable  place  to  notice  a  rather  important 
error  or  two  into  which  O'Donovan  and  other  writers  have  fallen, 
with  regard  to  this  family  of  Brian  O'Connor  and  their  peculiar 
patrimony.  These  writers  take  sliocht  Brian  to  signify  the 
descendants  of  Brian  Luignecti  O'Connor,  and,  consequently,  to 
include  all  the  branches  into  which  the  entire  O'Connor  Sligo 
family  divided.  And  they  take  the  patrimony  or  territory  of 
sliocht  Brian  to  be  Grange,  in  the  parish  of  Ahamlish :  "  a  small 
village,"  to  use  the  words  of  O'Donovan,  f  "  in  the  barony  of 
Carbury,  eight  miles  to  the  north  of  the  town  of  Sligo." 

*  Lasarina,  daughter  of  Cathal  Crovderg  O'Conor  and  the  wife  of  O'Donnell, 
gave  half  a  townland  of  her  marriage  dowry,  viz.,  Rosbirn,  to  Clarus  MacMailin 
and  the  Canons  of  Trinity  Island,  in  honour  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Virgin 
Mary. — Four  Masters. 

t  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1526. 

VOL  I.  2  E 


434  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


In  both  suppositions  they  are  in  error,  The  sliocht  Brian 
means,  not  the  descendants  of  Brian  Luighnech,the  head  of  all 
the  O'Connors  Sligo,  but  the  descendants  of  Brian  the  son  of 
Donnell.  This  Donnell,  who  died  in  1395,  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  second  founder  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  family  ; 
and  the  Four  Masters  tell  us  *  that,  from  his  time  to  1536, 
the  chief  of  the  family  was  styled  MacDonnell  MicMur- 
tough. 

Donnell  had  four  sons — Murtough  Baccagh,  Brian,  Owen,  and 
Turlough  Carragh — each  of  whom  ruled  in  succession  over 
O'Connor  Sligo's  country,  and  left  descendants  who  constituted 
four  great  branches  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  family,  and  were 
distinguished  from  one  another  by  the  name  of  their  respective 
ancestor,  as  Sliocht  Murtough  Baccagh,  Sliocht  Brian,  Sliocht 
Oiven,  and  Sliocht  Turlough  Carragh.  And  this  was  not  only 
their  popular  style  and  title,  but  their  official  designation  as 
well,  for  Perrot's  indenture  of  composition  with  the  Sligo  chiefs 
mentions  them  as  "  Sleight  Oivyne  O'Connor,"  "  Sleight 
Moryertaghe  backaghe  O'Connor,"  "  Sleight  Briene  O'Connor," 
and  "  Sleight  Tirrellagh  Carraghe  O'Connor."  It  is  clear  then 
that  O'Donovan  and  his  copyists  were  napping  when  they  con- 
founded the  Brian  of  Sleicht  Brian  with  Brian  Luighnech. 

And  they  were  equally  mistaken  with  regard  to  the  Grange  in 
question,  which  was  not  that  of  Lower  Carbury,  as  they  supposed, 
but  the  Grange  of  Coolerra,  or  Knocknarea ;  for  the  Grange  of 
Lower  Carbury  is  called  in  the  Inquisitions,  f  Grange  Muinter 
Hart,  or  Grange  Teige  O'Hart,  while  the  other  is  styled  Grange 
Sliocht  Brian  of  Coulirrie  (Coolerra).  Even  O'Donovan's  own  Four 
Masters  would  have  enabled  him  to  avoid  the  mistake  ;  for  they 

*  Sub  anno  1536. 

t  See  the  inquisitions  regarding  the  possessions  of  Boyle  Abbey,  taken  in 
1604,  and  1606,  already  quoted. 

See  also  the  inquisition  taken  at  Eoslee,  on  the  29th  December,  1616,  before 
Brian  McDouogh  of  Collooney,  and  other  jurors,  which  finds  that  Sir  John 
King,  Knight,  is  seized  as  of  fee,  in  right  of  the  late  dissolved  monastery  of 
Boile,  of  Grangagh  Muinter  Hart,  1  quarter,  and  Grangenamanagh,  alias 
Grangagh  Sliocht  Brien,  4  quarters. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  r435 


show,  under  the  year  1536,  that  it  was  only  after  O'Donnell, 
when  coming  from  the  north,  had  passed  the  fearsat  of  Sligo, 
"  he  proceeded  into  the  country  of  the  descendants  of  Brian 
O'Connor ; "  from  which  it  follows  that  the  district  below  the 
fearsat,  or  in  Lower  Carbury,  was  no  part  of  that  country.  The 
"  Owyne  O'Connor  of  the  Grawndge,"  then,  who  is  given  as  one 
of  the  signatories  of  Perrot's  indenture,  belonged  to  the  Slioclit 
Brian  branch  of  the  O'Connors,  and  lived  uin  the  castle  of  the 
town  of  Grange  of  Coulirrie,"  and  not  in  the  Grange  of  Lower 
Carbury,  as  has  been  supposed.  This  correction  is  important  in 
regard  not  only  to  the  topography,  but  also  to  the  history,  both  of 
Kilmacowen  and  Ahamlish. 

If  the  O'Connors  dispossessed  the  religious,  they  were  dis- 
possessed in  due  time  themselves.  Owen  O'Connor's  sons  and 
others  of  the  family  having  risen  against  the  Government,  and 
having  been  slain  in  rebellion,  their  lands  fell  at  once  to  the 
disposal  of  the  monarch ;  for  the  finding,  by  an  inquisition,  of 
"  slain  in  rebellion,"  was  itself  an  attainder  in  law  in  Ireland, 
dispensing  with  the  tedious  processes  of  formal  outlawry.  The 
lands  in  question  were  granted  in  the  eleventh  year  of  James  I. 
to  Captain  John  Baxter,  who  had  been  repeatedly  recommended  by 
Chichester  to  Salisbury  for  some  such  favour.  In  answer  to  those 
recommendations  Salisbury  directed  that  Baxter  should  receive  a 
grant  out  of  such  "concealed"  lands  as  he  should  himself  "discover." 

Set  thus  to  work,  the  Captain  soon  found  what  he  wanted, 
and  after  some  formal  proceedings,  received  a  grant  of  many 
of  his  "discoveries,"  others  of  them  being  reserved  for  other 
favourites,  though  the  modest  Baxter  applied  for  all,  namely, 
"  The  rectories  of  Skreen  and  Castleconnor ;  the  lands  of  Callo 
McOwen  O'Connor ;  Kilmacteige ;  Aghenagh ;  the  lands  of  Callo 
McCaher  O'Connor;  the  two  Bosses  McKenertyne,  Killaspug- 
brone ;  Ballybeolan  ;  Ballyconnell ;  Ballygilgan ;  and  the  quarter 
of  Drumcliffe  ;  all  in  the  county  of  Sligo,"  with  other  possessions 
situated  elsewhere,  Soon  got,  soon  gone  ;  and  we  find  that  no 
Baxter  inherited,  at  the  Restoration,  any  of  the  various  lands 
which  Captain  John  received  from  King  James,  and  which  his 


430  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


heir,  Gerald  Baxter,  owned  in  1641,  the  lands  going  to  different 
new  owners  : — Bruy,  to  Cornet  Cooper  ;  Drynaglan  and  the 
Granges,  to  Anthony  Ormsby  and  Henry  Nicholson  ;  and  Buns- 
ruhan,  Oyster  Island,  Coney  Island,  etc.,  to  Earl  of  Strafford. 

The  Cams  end  of  Cuil  Irra,  having  previously  passed  by  mort- 
gage from  the  O'Connors  to  the  Crean  family,  passed  away  from 
the  latter  at  the  Restoration,  and  was  granted,  for  the  most 
part,  to  the  Ormsbys.  This  fortunate  family  are  said  to  have 
possessed  a  wide  belt  of  land,  stretching  the  whole  length  of  the 
peninsula,  from  the  sea  to  the  lake,  so  that  the  avenue  that 
still  passes  over  Cams  Hill  on  to  the  ruins  of  their  mansion 
at  Belvoir,  would  have  then  extended  westward  all  the  way  to 
the  Granges,  and  have  been  for  extent,  and  the  noble  prospect 
it  commanded,  one  of  the  finest  avenues  in  Ireland. 

As  in  the  case  of  nearly  all  the  ancient  churches  of  Ireland, 
so  also  in  the  case  of  Kilmacowen,  those  who  selected  the  site 
showed  an  appreciation  of  the  picturesque,  for  the  spot  com- 
mands a  good  view  of  the  sea,  of  the  Ox  mountains,  and  of 
much  of  the  country  lying  beyond  them.  Nor  was  the  church 
as  much  exposed  to  the  storm  as  one  might  think,  considering 
its  situation  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  for  it  reposes  in  the  centre 
of  little  hillocks,  which,  though  of  no  great  elevation,  are 
sufficiently  high  to  protect  it  from  the  winds.  As  it  stands  at 
present,  in  the  midst  of  those  elevations,  and  encircled  by  the 
lines  of  trees,  which  the  taste  and  zeal  of  Father  Quinn,  when 
curate  in  the  parish,  planted  round  it,  it  has  the  look  of  a  bird's 
nest,  placed  by  the  instinct  of  its  builder  as  far  as  possible  out 
of  harm's  way. 

It  may  be  taken  for  certain,  that  the  church,  of  which  the 
walls  remain,  was  not  built  so  early  as  the  time  of  the  sons  of 
Owen,  who  lived  in  the  sixth  century  ;  and,  judging  by  the  size 
and  style,  it  was  probably  erected  between  the  twelfth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.  The  eastern  gable,  a  considerable  fragment 
of  the  south  sidewall,  and  a  lesser  fragment  of  the  north  one, 
are  all  that  survive  of  the  work.  The  sidewalls  were  sixty-eight 
feet  long,  and  two  feet  ten  inches  thick  ;  and  the  gables  were  of 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  437 


the  same  thickness,  and  twenty-seven  feet  wide,  exterior 
measurement.  The  sanctuary  window  is  of  the  lancet  kind, 
is  formed  of  ten  sand  stones,  five  each  side,  and  is  five  feet 
high,  and  four  inches  wide,  splaying  on  the  interior  face  of  wall, 
to  six  feet.  In  the  south  sidewall,  within  three  feet  of  eastern 
gable,  there  is  a  small  window  splaying  to  four  feet  ten  inches 
on  the  inside.  Under  this  window  there  is  a  piscina  nineteen 
inches  square,  and  in  the  gable,  on  the  epistle  side,  another 
recess  of  about  the  same  size.  A  fragment,  that  still  remains, 
shows  there  was  a  large  arch  in  the  south  sidewall,  from  which 
we  may  infer,  that  a  transept  was  attached  on  that  side  to  the 
church,  something  like  the  transept  of  Sligo  Abbey. 

It  is  likely  that  this  church  is  a  later  erection  than  Temple 
Bree  (recte,  Tempul  na  brugh),  or  Cillen  na  Brugh,  as  it  is 
sometimes  called.  Misled  by  the  word  Temple,  some  think 
that  this  house  belonged  to  the  Templars,  but  there  is  no 
probability  in  the  opinion,  for  Temple  or  Tempul,  from  the  Latin 
templum,  signifies  merely  a  church,  without  any  reference  to  the 
Templars.  As  this  very  old  church,  of  which  only  a  few  feet  of 
a  gable  remains,  stood  on  the  ground,  which  was  given  as  an 
endowment  by  the  Tireragh  chief  to  the  sons  of  Owen,  there  is 
reason  to  think  that  it  was  the  first  church  built  by  them ;  and, 
very  probably,  it  was  only  after  it  was  disused  or  became  incon- 
venient to  the  people,  the  church  of  Kilmacowen  was  erected. 
It  may  be  in  this  way  we  should  understand  what  is  stated  in 
the  life  of  St.  Cormac,  that  the  name  of  the  church  founded  by 
the  sons  of  Owen,  which  at  first  was  called  the  church  of 
Rosredheadh,  was  changed  in  the  course  of  time  to  Kilmacowen 
— a  change  intelligible  enough  if  there  were  two  churches,  but 
not  so  easy  to  understand,  if  there  was  question  of  only  one  and 
the  same  structure. 

Kilmacowen  is  the  principal  burying  place  for  the  people  of 
Coolerra,  Catholic  and  Protestant ;  and  for  a  country  church- 
yard, the  monuments  show  considerable  taste:  The  chief  names 
on  them  are: — Brown,  Atkinson,  Allen,  Boland,  Connolly, 
Tighe,  Hargadon,  Killawee,  and  Walsh. 


438  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


There  are  several  holy  wells  in  Coolerra — one,  within  about 
a  hundred  feet  of  the  church  of  Kilraacowen,  named  after  St. 
Patrick,  and  having  over  it  a  large  stone,  which,  according  to 
the  country  people,  bears  the  print  of  the  Saint's  knee,  and  is 
still  coloured  with  the  blood  drawn  from  the  bare  knee  by  the 
hard  stone ;  a  second,  Tubber  Padraig,  in  the  townland  of 
Scardan-beg ;  a  third,  our  Lady's  "Well  in  the  same  town- 
land;  and  a  fourth,  in  Scardan-more,  called  St.  Brigid's  "Well. 
There  is  reason  to  think  that  St.  Brigid,  in  her  travels  through 
Connaught,  visited  this  district,  for  Colgan  tells  us,  that  she  is 
the  patron  Saint  of  the  parish  of  Kilmacowen,  a  circumstance 
which  the  well  just  mentioned  goes  to  confirm. 

The  last  Parish  Priests  of  Kilmacowen,  of  whom  there  is  any 
record,  were  Rev.  John  Dugan,  who  resided  at  Kilmacowen, 
and  was  Parish  Priest  both  of  Kilmacowen  and  Killaspugbrone ; 
and  Rev.  John  McDonnah,  living  in  1712,  who  was  Parish 
Priest  of  the  same  parishes,  after  Father  Dugan.  Those  two 
churches  were  no  doubt  in  ruins  in  the  days  of  Father  Dugan 
and  Father  McDonnah,  who  were  obliged,  like  nearly  all  the 
priests  of  the  time,  to  officiate  in  the  open  air.  As  far  as 
appears,  they  used  to  say  Mass  at  a  rock  which  stood  on  or  near 
the  site  of  the  present  chapel  of  Ransborough,  and  which  was 
the  ordinary  meeting  place  of  the  priest  and  congregation  in 
those  evil  days — selected,  no  doubt,  because  it  commanded  an 
extensive  view  all  round,  and  enabled  those  who  were  on  the 
watch  to  descry  the  priest-catchers  while  they  were  still  miles 
away.  This  spot  is  referred  to  in  the  Depositions  taken  by  Sligo 
magistrates  in  1711-'12,  and  given  in  a  preceding  page. 

Old  people  tell  that  the  place  got  the  name  of  Ransborough 
from  a  wren  (Hibernica  dreari)  which  had  its  nest  in  a  hole 
of  the.  rock,  and  which  flew  in  and  out  occasionally,  even  while 
the  priest  and  people  were  at  their  devotions. 

On  this  spot,  as  soon  as  the  state  of  the  country  allowed  it, 
the  Catholics  ran  up  a  little  chapel,  and  covered  it  with  thatch, 
which  rested  on  a  roof  constructed  of  the  ribs  of  a  whale,  instead 
of  timbers ;  and  it  was  in  this  wretched  hut,  which  was  patched 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  439 


and  stayed  from  time  to  time  to  keep  it  from  falling,  and  in 
which,  under  the  ribs  of  the  whale,  the  persecuted  worshippers 
must  have  felt  themselves  almost  as  straitened  as  Jonas  in  the 
whale's  belly,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Kilmacowen  and  Killas- 
pugbrone  heard  Mass  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  down  to  about 
sixty  years  ago,  when  Father  O'Callaghan  built  the  present 
church — which  was  greatly  improved  by  Father  Andrew  Quinn, 
when  curate  of  St.  John's. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

PARISH  OF  CALRY. 

CALRY  parish,  which  stretches,  partly,  along,  the  north  shore  of 
Lough  Gill,  and,  partly,  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Sligo  river, 
has  its  name  from  the  old  district  of  Calrigia,  though  it  is  less 
extensive  than  that  district,  which  took  in  Drumlias  and  some 
other  portions  of  the  county  Leitrim.*  The  parish  has  been 
sometime  called  Callgach,  and  is  so-called  in  the  county  Sligo 
Survey  of  1633,  but  the  popular  designation  seems  to  have  been 
always,  as  it  now  is,  Calry,  the  English  form  of  Calraidhe, 
— composed  of  Cal,  a  man's  name,  and  raidhe,  descendants-^ — 
the  term  signifying  the  descendants  of  Cal,  who  was  grand-uncle 
of  Maccon,  though  in  the  course  of  time,  it  came  to  express 
as  well  the  districts  occupied  by  those  descendants. 

There  were  several  places  of  the  name  in  Ireland,  as  Calry- 
an-Chala  in  Westmeath ;  Calry-Moy-Heleog  in  Mayo  ;  and  the 
county  Sligo  Calry.  The  name,  when  applied  to  the  Sligo 
district,  was  qualified  with  additions  at  different  times  ;  being 
called  in  the  Book  of  Armagh,  J  Calry-Tremaige  ;  in  the  Topo- 
graphical poem  of  Giolla  losa  Mor  Mac  Firbis,§  Calry  Laithim  ; 
and,  in  the  Four  Masters,  Calry,  Lough  Gill,  at  one  time,||  and 

*  Reversus  est  denuo  Patricius  ad  jam  memoratam  Calrigice,  regionem,  et  in 
loco,  tune  Druimdaire  vocato,  baptizavit  Mac-caerthanum,  et  in  eo  excitavit 
Monasterium  Druzm-lias. — Patrick  came  back  again  to  the  aforesaid  region  of 
Calry,  and,  in  a  spot  then  called  Drumdare,  he  baptized  Maccarthan,  and  erected 
the  monastery  of  Drumlias.  Colgan. — Trias  Thaumaturga,  p.  143. 

t  Dr.  Joyce's  Irish  Names  of  Places.     First  Series,  p.  115. 

$  Et  exiit  ad  regiones  Callrigi  Tremaige  et  fecit  ecclesiam  juxta  Drumlias.— 
He  went  out  to  the  districts  of  Callrigi  Tremaige,  and  constructed  a  church  at 
Drumlias.— Betham's  Irish  Antiquarian  Researches.  Part  II.,  p.  xxxiii. 

§  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy  Fiachrach,  p.  277. 

1!  Four  Masters,  A.D.  1251. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  441 


Calry  Drumcliff  at  another.*  There  is  good  reason  also  for 
taking  it  to  be  the  Calry  de  Culechernadan  of  the  Vita  Tri- 
partita  ;f  and  the  Calry  Aelmhaighe  of  the  Four  Masters,! 
though  the  authority  of  O'Donovan  may  be  adduced  against  the 
identity  in  both  cases.  Of  Calry  de  Culechernadan  he  writes, 
"  This  is  now  Coolcarney,  a  district  in  the  barony  of  Gallen,  and 
county  of  Mayo,  comprising  the  parishes  of  Attymass  and  Kil- 
garvan  ;"§  and  of  Calry  Aelmhaighe  he  says,  "  This  sept  of  the 
Calraighe  was  probably  that  otherwise  called  Calraighe-an- 
Chala,  and  seated  in  the  barony  of  Clonlonan,  and  county  of 
Westmeath." 

The  writer's  reasons  for  differing  from  O'Donovan,  and 
identifying  those  two  places  with  the  Calry  of  Sligo,  are : — with 
regard  to  Calry  de  Culechernadan  :  first,  that  it  is  mentioned 
in  connexion  with  the  saint's  last  acts  in  Connaught,  which  acts 
certainly  occurred  in  the  district  of  Sligo  ;  second,  the  authority 
of  Colgan,  who  describes  the  place  as  a  "  regiuncula  prope 
Sligeach,"  a  little  tract  near  Sligo ;  and  third,  the  authority  of 
Dr.  Lanigan,  who  observes  of  it,  "This  district  must,  besides  a 
part  of  Sligo,  have  comprehended  some  part  of  the  present 
county  Leitrim."1T  These  authorities  are  decisive. 

And  as  to  Calry  Aelmagh,  the  writer  would  rest  his  conten- 
tion on  the  passage  from  the  Book  of  Armagh,  of  which  a 
portion  has  been  already  quoted,  and  which  runs  thus  in  its  com- 
pleteness : — "  Et  exiit  ad  regiones  de  Callrigi  Tremaige  et  fecit 
ecclesiam  juxta  Drumleas,  et  baptizavit  multos  et  erexit  ad 
campum  Ailmaige  et  fundavit  ecclesiam  ibi,  id  est,  Domnach 


*  Four  Masters,  1252. 

t  Patricio  Connacuse  circuitum  ad  exitum  prope  ducenti  et  transeunti 
occurrerunt  viri  Calregise  de  Culechernadan. — As  Patrick  was  bringing  his  tour 
through  Connaught  to  a  close,  some  men  of  Calry  de  Culechernadan  came  before 
him.— Trias  Thaum.,  p.  143. 

t  A.M.  3790  ;  A.D.  781. 

§  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy  Fiachrach,  471. 

||  Four  Masters,  781,  note. 

IT  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland,  Vol.  I.,  p.  257. 


442  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


Ailmaige  quia  Patricius  illic  mansit  tribus  diebus  et  tribus 
noctibus." — And  he  went  out  to  the  districts  Callrigi  Tremaige, 
and  constructed  a  church  at  Drumlias,  and  baptized  many,  and 
erected  and  founded  a  church  at  the  plain  of  Ailmaige,  that  is, 
Domnach  Ailmaige,  for  Patrick  remained  there  three  days 
and  three  nights.  The  Ailmaige  of  this  passage,  and  the 
Aelmagh  of  the  Four  Masters,  are  plainly  one  and  the  same 
place,  and  consequently  Aelmagh  must  be  somewhere  in  Calry- 
Sligo,  and  not,  as  0 'Donovan  would  have  it,  in  Calry-an- 
Chala. 

Calry  is  at  least  equal  in  beauty  to  any  of  the  other  environs 
of  Sligo.  Coologeoboy  and  Cashelgal  mountains  in  the  back 
ground ;  Lough  Gill  full  in  front ;  the  whole  space  between  the 
mountains  and  the  lake  parted  into  green  sward,  cultivated 
fields,  and  wooded  tracts,  varied  with  the  little  lakes  of  Colgach 
and  Lougheneltin ;  the  fine  mansions  of  Hazelwood,  Cloghereva, 
and  Holywell;  the  handsome  residences  of  Ballyglass  and  Ross- 
lare ;  the  neat  gate  lodges  and  labourers'  cottages  of  Mr. 
Wynne ;  and  the  several  comfortable  farm-houses  which  stand 
out  in  prominent  and  picturesque  positions  over  the  district; 
with  all  these  advantages,  Calry  lacks  hardly  a  single  element 
of  the  beautiful  and  the  striking  in  landscape  scenery.  The 
ground  slopes  all  the  way  from  the  mountains  to  Lough  Gill, 
the  gradients,  however,  increasing  sharply  as  you  near  the 
mountain,  so  that  within  a  mile  or  so  of  the  base,  the  roads  are 
in  places  so  steep  and  abrupt,  as  to  make  it  no  easy  matter  for 
vehicles  to  ascend  or  descend. 

The  views  from  Calry  are  very  fine,  expanding  as  you  mount, 
but  losing  in  distinctness  of  object  and  vividness  of  colouring, 
•what  they  gain  in  extent.  About  half  way  up  the  slope  you 
get  the  most  satisfying  prospect ;  for  while  you  have  then  under 
the  eye,  a  large  extent  of  country — stretching  from  the  sea  to 
the  Leitrim  mountains,  and  from  your  stand-point  to  the  Slieve- 
da-En,  and  Slieve  Gamh  ranges — you  are  still  near  enough  to 
escape  all  sense  of  confusion  or  crowding  in  the  objects,  to 
realize  the  undulations  of  the  surface,  the  outlines  and  extent 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  443 

of  groves  and  lands,  and  the  well  rounded  contours  of  Knock- 
narea  and  Cams,  and  to  perceive  and  appreciate  the  various 
and  ever  varying  shades  of  the  landscape  from  the  bare  rock 
and  purple  heath  of  Knocknarea,  to  the  rich,  soft,  and  shining 
green  of  Belvoir  and  Tawnaphubble. 

The  most  charming,  as  well  as  the  most  historical  spot  in 
Calry,  is  Hazel  wood.  It  is  only  about  160  years  ago  it  began 
to  be  so  called,  the  old  name  being  Annagh ;  but  it  is  plain, 
that  Annagh  comprised  a  larger  area  than  Hazelwood  now  does, 
and  that  it  took  in  Willowbrook ;  for  we  find  Francis  Ormsby  of 
that  place,  who  was  High  Sheriff  of  the  county  in  1715,  calling 
his  residence  Annagh.  Indeed  there  is  good  proof  that  the 
whole  parish  of  Calry  went  occasionally  by  the  name  of  Annagh, 
for,  in  the  Commonwealth  Census  of  1659,  it  is  so  designated. 

It  is  the  common  opinion,  shared  too  by  ODonovan,  and, 
apparently,  by  the  Four  Masters,  that  Annagh  had  its  name 
from  being  "boggy"  land;  but  this  would  seem  to  be  a  mis- 
taken opinion,  without  any  foundation  in  the  qualities  of  the 
soil,  which  is  less  boggy,  and  more  sandy,  than  most  of  the  county. 
In  the  Irish  language  there  are  two  words  of  much  the  same 
sound — eanaigh,  a  marsh  or  bog,  and  aenagh  or  aonagh,  a 
meeting  or  place  of  meeting;  and  it  was,  no  doubt,  by  con- 
founding one  word  with  the  other,  that  the  old  name  of  Hazel- 
wood  was  supposed  to  be  eanaigh;  though  the  following 
stanza,  in  the  celebrated  poem  of  Giolla  losa  Mor  Mac  Firbis, 
who,  as  living  in  the  neighbourhood,  must  be  accepted  as  a 
decisive  authority,  proves  clearly  enough  the  old  name  to  be 
aenach,  a  meeting  or  place  of  meeting : — 

Callraidi  Laithim  na  lann 

O1  Nuadhan  fuair  afearrann, 
Form  braenac  gainmidi  glan 
Aenac  ainglidi,  idan. 

Of  Callraidhe  Laithim  of  the  swords 
O'Nuadhan  obtained  the  land 
A  droppy,  sandy,  fine  land 
An  angelic  pure  place  of  meetings. 


444  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


If  confirmation  of  this  proof  were  needed,  it  would  be  found 
in  the  old  Irish  life  of  Saint  Ceallach,  bishop  of  Kilmore  Moy, 
where  our  Annagh  is  mentioned  as  Aenach  Locha  Gile. 

Tourists  of  taste,  after  visiting  the  most  picturesque  places  in. 
Ireland  declare  that  Hazel  wood  is,  at  least,  fully  equal  in  beauty 
to  the  most  charming  spots  found  in  other  parts  of  the  country. 
While  it  is  at  present,  as  it  stretches  away  from  the  surburbs  of 
Sligo  to  beyond  Holywell,  one  of  the  largest  demesnes  we  have, 
it  is  still  more  remarkable  for  its  beauty  of  outline,  of  colour, 
and  of  cultivation,  than  for  its  extent.  The  prevailing  contour 
lines  are  gentle  curves,  with  here  and  there  some  bold  concave 
sweeps  and  level  stretches ;  the  colour  of  everything  that  meets 
the  eye  is  exceptionally  soft  and  rich,  owing  to  the  waters  of  the 
lake  and  river ;  and  the  cultivation,  first,  in  laying  out  the  land- 
scape, and,  next,  in  filling  it  in,  or  furnishing  it,  is  plainly  the 
outcome  of  unstinted  outlay  and  exquisite  taste. 

Though  the  residence  may  not  be  equal  in  massiveness  to 
some  more  modern  mansions,  it  is  still  a  very  stately  and  grace- 
ful structure.  It  is  built  of  cut  and  polished  limestone,  in  the 
Italian  style,  with  a  bold  four-story  front  fa9ade,  and  two 
lateral  curving  wings,  after  the  manner  of  a  peristyle,  reminding 
those  who  have  seen  prints  of  Edmund  Burke's  house  at  Beacons- 
field,  of  that  fine  building.  The  hall  door  is  reached  by  a  noble 
flight  of  stone  steps  landing  on  a  spacious  platform,  which  com- 
mands a  good  view  of  the  Leitrim  and  north  Sligo  mountains. 
A  secondary  front,  rising  from  a  fine  terrace,  looks  to  the  south  ; 
and  the  area,  running  from  the  terrace  to  the  lake,  is  divided 
between  an  open  lawn  and  shady  groves,  in  which  are  provided 
charming  retreats  for  saunterers,  including  a  cane  house,  a  rock 
house,  a  shell  house,  and  a  curious  chair  of  state,  constructed  of 
materials  rarely  found  in  these  latitudes,  the  bones  of  the 
whale. 

The  part  of  the  demesne  on  which  this  mansion  stands  is  a 
cape  which  runs  well  into  Lough  Gill,  and  which  is  covered 
with  trees  and  shrubs  of  a  fresher  and  livelier  hue  than  may  be 
seen  in  any  other  part  of  Carbury.  The  arbutus  lives  and 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  445 


thrives  in  this  favoured  spot,  and  so  flourishes  as  to  attract  the 
notice  and  admiration  of  the  spectator,  even  amid  the  great 
variety  of  laurels,  hollys,  bays,  and  other  evergreens,  as  well 
indigenous  as  exotic,  in  -which  the  place  abounds.  This  plant 
may  be  seen  not  only  from  the  walks  of  the  grounds,  but  to, 
perhaps,  still  greater  advantage,  from  the  water,  where  the 
curious,  who  frequent  the  lake  at  different  seasons,  may  observe 
in  the  specimens  that  rise  from  the  water's  edge,  the  successive 
stages  of  vegetation  through  which  the  arbutus  passes ;  first,  the 
blossoms  of  clustering  little  white  bells,  and  then  the  strawberry 
fruit,  changing  from  green  to  yellow,  and,  about  November,  from 
yellow  to  scarlet,  thus  imparting  to  winter  the  warm  colouring 
of  spring. 

The  south  front  of  the  house  commands  the  finest  views  of 
Lough  Gill.  With  the  exception  of  one  or  two  small  patches, 
the  whole  sheet  of  water,  with  all  its  islands  and  islets,  and  with 
almost  every  perch  of  its  shores,  falls  at  once  under  the  eye  of 
the  spectator.  In  shape  an  oval  or  oblong,  five  or  six  miles 
long,  and  two  or  three  broad,  studded  with  islands  varying  in 
size  from  41  acres  to  hardly  a  perch ;  closed  in  by  shores  that 
combine  all  the  elements  of  the  picturesque  and  the  beautiful  : — 
the  towering,  naked,  rugged,  rocks  of  Slieve  da  En  ;  the  timbered 
heights  of  Doonee,  Rockwood,  and  Slishwood  ;  the  more  gentle 
elevations  of  Shriff,  rising  up  with  all  the  regularity  of  an 
amphitheatre  over  the  "  smiling  valley  "  which  Moore  has  made 
famous ;  the  shining  verdant  slopes  of  Holywell ;  the  groves  and 
lawns,  the  parterres  and  pleasure  grounds  of  Hazelwood  ;  the 
stately  hill  of  Cams,  with  its  two  mysterious  mounds,  looking 
like  watch  towers  for  the  guardians  of  the  lake — with  these 
features  and  surroundings,  Lough  Gill  is  second  in  beauty  to  no 
lake  in  the  three  kingdoms,  not  excepting  even  our  own 
Killarney.  There  are  some,  however,  who  think  the  prospect 
would  be  improved  by  more  and  higher  mountains,  but  this, 
instead  of  a  perfection,  would  be  a  fatal  blemish,  and  would  mar 
all  the  beauty  of  the  scene  by  changing  the  Bright  Lake  (the 
literal  meaning  of  Lough  Gill,)  into  a  second  Avernus,  or,  to  take 


446  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


the  illustration  from  our  own  country,  into  that 

-"  lake  whose  gloomy  shore 

Skylark  never  warbles  o'er." 

Without  being  crowded,  Lough  Gill  is  fully  furnished  with 
islands,  most  of  them  circular  in  form  and  covered  with  strong 
timber  or  brushwood.  The  two  largest  are  Church  Island  and 
Cottage  Island,  each  containing  remains  of  ecclesiastical  build- 
ings. A  Chancery  inquisition  of  James  I.,  taken  at  Sligo  on 
the  3rd  of  September,  1612,  before  Geoffrey  Osbaldeston  and 
Nicholas  Brady,  informs  us  that  Cottage  Island,  which  was  then 
called  O'Gilleghan's  Island,  as  it  is  now  often  called  Gallagher's 
Island,  was  parcel  of  the  church  of  Killross,  which  belonged 
itself  to  Trinity  Abbey  in  Lough  Ce,  and  passed,  by  royal  grant, 
with  the  other  possessions  of  that  abbey,  to  Robert  Harrison, 
and  some  years  later,  by  purchase,  to  John  Crofton.  Church 
Island,  Hibernice  Inis  Mor,  must  have  belonged  formerly  to  the 
O'Rorkes,  as  their  annalists  and  followers,  the  O'Curnins,  were 
in  possession  of  it  in  1416,  when  "  The  church  of  Inis  Mor,  in 
Lough  Gill  was  burned ;  and  Screaptra  0' Cumin,  and  the 
Leabhar  Gearr  of  the  O'Curnins,  as  well  as  many  other  precious 
articles  were  burned  also." 

This  occurrence  was  a  great  loss  to  the  whole  country,  but  to 
Sligo  and  the  neighbourhood  it  was  an  irreparable  disaster,  as 
much  of  the  materials  for  local  history  must  have  perished  in 
the  fire.  O'Donovan  declares  himself  unable  "to  determine 
•what  this  book — the  leabhar  ghear — was,"  taking  it  to  be  some 
individual  book,  so  named.  But  may  not  leabhar  ghear  have 
been  a  generic  name  for  the  journal  in  which  current  events  were 
set  down,  while  awaiting  their  final  committal  by  the  scribe  of 
the  monastery  to  the  permanent  record  of  the  establishment  ? 
This  conjecture  derives  some  probability  from  the  fact  that  we 
meet  in  the  Four  Masters,  with  another  leabhar  ghear,  which 
could  not  be  the  book  of  the  O'Curnins,  that  having  been  lost  in 
the  fire.  The  other,  "  precious  articles "  consumed,  comprised 
"  goblets,  a  tympanum,  and  a  harp." 

*  These  particulars  are  added  by  O'Flaherty  and  O'Mulconny,  who  are  both 
quoted  by  O'Donovan  in  his  note  under  the  year  1416. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  447 


The  lake  and  its  surrrou ridings  are  hardly  less  interesting  for 
the  historian  than  for  the  lover  of  natural  scenery,  as  containing 
distinctive  memorials  of  the  different  stages  through  which  the 
country  has  passed.  The  pre-historic  ages  are,  according  to 
many,  represented  by  the  monuments  of  Cams  Hill  and  of  the 
Deer  Park  ;  the  pre-Norman  period,  by  a  considerable  fragment 
of  the  castle  from  which  Dervorgilla,  the  wife  of  O'Rorke,  was 
taken  away  by  Dermod  McMurrough  ;  the  English  Ascendancy 
by  the  strong  places  of  the  Villiers  at  Dromahair,  the  Parkes  at 
Newtown,  and  the  Ormsbys  at  Willowbrook  and  Belvoir;  and 
later  times  by  the  mansions  of  the  Whites,  the  Gethins,  and  the 
Wynnes. 

Nor  are  the  ecclesiastical  memorials  of  the  region  less  sug- 
gestive than  the  secular.  The  ruins  of  religious  edifices  on  the 
islands  remind  us  of  those  days  of  fervour,  when  our  forefathers 
left  all  things,  even  the  mainland,  to  follow  Christ.  The  abbey 
of  Sligo,  at  one  end  of  the  lake,  and  of  Creevalea,  at  the  other, 
are  monuments  of  the  cultivated  taste  as  well  as  of  the  ardent 
piety  of  the  men  that  built  them.  The  rectory  of  St.  John? 
Sligo,  now,  and  for  three  hundred  years,  in  the  possession  of 
those  who  appropriated  it  by  force,  is  itself  a  standing  witness 
of  the  spoliation  ;  while  the  secluded  wells  of  Tubberconnell, 
and  of  Tubbernailt,  with  their  rude  altars,  are  always  there  to 
tell  how  the  robbed  and  banned  Catholics,  after  turning  away 
from  the  desecrated  temple  which  they  could  not  now  enter 
without  sacrificing  faith,  elected,  as  became  the  followers  of  Him 
who  had  not  a  place  whereon  to  lay  His  head,  to  betake  them- 
selves to  the  desert  and  the  mountain,  and  there  expose  them- 
selves, like  the  divine  Master,  to  the  rage  of  the  elements  as 
well  as  to  the  vengeance  of  man.  But,  thank  Heaven,  these 
dreadful  days  are  gone ;  and  the  houses  of  worship,  which  now 
occupy  and  adorn  the  town  of  Sligo — the  massive  Cathedral, 
the  elegant  Dominican  convent,  the  imposing  Protestant  church 
of  Calry,  and  the  neat  and  commodious  churches  or  Meeting- 
houses of  the  Methodists,  the  Independents,  and  the  Presby- 
terians, testify  to  the  better  times  in  which  our  lot  is  cast,  and 


448  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


in  which  every  man  is  free  to  believe  and  worship  according  to 
his  conscience. 

Tranquil  as  the  lake  looks  ordinarily,  it  is  very  dangerous  to 
those  who  move  upon  it  in  windy  weather.  Judging  by  the 
casualties  of  the  last  few  years,  the  loss  of  life  on  the  lake  must 
have  been  heavy  in  the  past.  In  1876,  at  a  regatta,  a  sailing 
boat,  the  Glana,  engaged  in  the  contest,  went  down  with  her 
crew  of  four  men,  when  three  of  them,  named  respectively, 
Kilgallen,  Gallagher,  and  Conway,  lost  their  lives;  in  1882,  at  a 
rowing  match,  two  highly  esteemed  young  men,  Messrs.  Reynolds 
and  Patterson,  were  drowned  by  the  swamping  of  their  boat ; 
and  a  third,  Mr.  Hudson,  the  only  son  of  a  widowed  mother, 
would  have  been  lost  but  for  Mr.  Wynne,  who  saved  him, 
gallantly,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life ;  and  on  the  9th  August, 
1883,  Thomas  H.  Corry,  Esq.,  Lecturer  on  Botany  in  King's 
College,  Cambridge,  and  Charles  Dixon,  Esq.,  Solicitor,  both 
natives  of  Belfast,  and  both  men  of  promise,  more  especially 
Mr.  Corry,  were  drowned  a  little  off  Goat  Island,  under  circum- 
stances which  entitle  them  to  be  regarded  as  martyrs  of  science, 
they  being  engaged  at  the  moment  in  an  endeavour  to  secure 
certain  rare  botanical  specimens  for  the  Royal  Irish  Academy. 

And  in  times  past,  when  the  lake  was  more  frequented,  from 
the  fact  of  two,  at  least,  of  the  islands  being  then  occupied  by 
religious,  and  from  Church  Island,  being,  as  is  said,  a  burying 
place  for  the  parish  of  Calry,  those  casualties  must  have  been 
still  more  numerous,  though  they  would  not  be  recorded,  unless 
in  exceptional  circumstances,  as  in  the  case  mentioned  in  The 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  under  the  year  1561,  where  we  read, 
"  Naisse,  the  son  of  Cithruadh,  the  most  eminent  musician  that 
was  in  Erin,  was  drowned  on  Loch-Gile;  and  his  wife,  the 
daughter  of  MacDonogh,  and  Athairne,  the  son  of  Matthew 
Glas ;  and  the  son  of  O'Duigenan,  was  a  great  loss." 

As  Naisse  and  his  party  were  musical  people  the  accident 
may  have  occurred  at  a  regatta,  or  on  some  such  pleasurable  occa- 
sion. It  is  likely  that  those  entertainments  were  discontinued 
soon  after  this  time,  owing  to  the  disturbances  of  the  times, 


HISTORY   OF   SLICK).  449 


and  that  they  were  not  resumed  for  near  three  centuries  later, 
when,  according  to  the  Sligo  Journal  of  the  day,  a  boat  race 
came  off  on  the  14th  August,  1827,  which,  as  the  same  paper 
states,  was  the  first  entertainment  of  the  kind  instituted  in  this 
part  of  Ireland.  The  journal  records,  that  the  day  passed  off 
most  agreeably,  that  vast  crowds  attended,  that  no  accident 
whatever  happened,  and  that  every  one  was  highly  gratified. 
It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  note,  that  the  regattas  of  1887  and 
1888,  like  that  held  just  half  a  century  previous,  were  red  letter 
days  in  respect  to  the  presence  of  crowds,  the  absence  of 
accidents,  and  the  gratification  of  everybody. 

There  are  great  and  frequent  variations  of  depth  in  Lough 
Gill.  From  a  report  of  the  late  Mr.  E.  Hardman,  who  received 
a  grant  of  £15  from  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  for  making 
soundings  in  the  lake,  we  learn,  that  a  difference  of  thirty  feet 
in  depth  is  not  uncommon  in  a  distance  of  four  hundred  feet, 
and  that  the  principal  depths  in  the  section  sounded  by  him, 
are  : — "  Between  Cottage  Island  and  Church  Island,  65  feet ; 
one  mile  from  the  latter,  9 6 '8  feet ;  a  little  further  on  eastward, 
97-6  and  99  feet,  then  105  and  116  feet."  This  depth  of  116 
feet,  which  was  the  greatest  found,  lay  more  than  a  mile  to  the 
east  end  of  Church  Island,  and  one  and  three  quarters  mile 
from  the  east  or  Shriff  end  of  lake.  Any  one  who  passes  from 
the  Carrowroe  direction,  and  observes  the  abrupt  and  deep  breaks 
constantly  recurring  in  the  surface  of  the  land,  must  be  struck 
with  the  similarity  of  form  there  is  in  that  surface  and  in  the 
bottom  of  the  lake,  as  this  is  ascertained  by  Mr.  Hardman's 
soundings. 

Under  Celtic  rule,  which  lasted  in  this  part  of  the  country 
down  to  Sir  John  Perrott's  Composition  with  the  Sligo  chiefs  in 
1584,  Annagh,  or  Hazelwood,  belonged  to  the  O'Connors  Sligo, 
and  to  that  branch  of  the  family  whose  head-quarters  was  at 
Dunally.  Murtough  O'Connor,  who  was  grandson  of  Turlough 
Carragh,  and  owner  of  the  castle  of  Annagh,  in  1533,  being  at 
war  with  O'Donnell,  and  falling  into  his  hands,  the  northern 
chief  offered  to  spare  his  life  on  condition  of  receiving  surrender 

VOL.  I.  2  F 


450  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


of  the  castle;  but  Murtough's  sons,  who  held  the  fortress,  refused 
to  comply  with  the  condition,  even  to  save  their  father's  life, 
and  their  father,  in  consequence,  was  hanged  on  the  faitche,  or 
green,  before  the  castle. 

The  O'Connors  still  owned  the  place  in  the  early  years  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  for  in  the  third  year  of  James  I.,  we 
find  that  monarch  granting  a  general  pardon  to  "  Donnell 
McTeige  Oge  McTurlough  Connor  of  Annagh,"  in  the  county 
Sligo.  There  are  now  no  remains  of  the  castle  of  Annagh,  nor 
is  its  exact  site  known,  but  it  stood  somewhere  on  the  slender 
peninsula  which  lies  to  the  east  of  Hazelwood  House,  and 
which  is  still  called  Castle  Point ;  as  the  adjoining  inlet  is  still 
called  Annagh  Bay,  in  memory  of  the  old  name  of  Hazelwood. 

From  the  O'Connors,  Annagh  passed,  in  the  second  decade  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  to  Andrew  Crean,  first  by  mortgage, 
and  later  by  royal  grant.  Together  with  Annagh,  Crean 
obtained  from  the  king  other  large  possessions  in  the  parishes 
of  Calry  and  St.  John  ;  but  his  son  John,  who  inherited  them, 
lost  all  in  the  hurly-burly  of  1641.  At  the  Restoration,  Annagh. 
with  the  rest  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate,  was  granted  to  Lord 
William  Strafford  and  Thomas  Radcliffe ;  in  the  Tripartite 
division  of  that  estate,  in  the  year  1687,  most  of  the  Strafford 
and  Radcliffe  grant  in  the  parish  of  Calry  fell  to  the  lot  of 
Thomas  Wilson ;  and  from  Wilson,  through  an  intermediary  or 
two,  it  came  to  Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  of  Lurganboy,  in  the  county 
Leitrim,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  owner. 

The  Wynne  family  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  in  the 
country.  Omitting  their  history  in  Wales,  where  they  always 
occupied  a  foremost  place,  they  have  been  connected  either  by 
kindred  or  affinity,  with  the  first  names  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  Owen  Wynne,  who  was  the  first  of  the  family  that 
settled  in  the  country,  married  Catherine,  relict  of  Sir  James 
Hamilton,  and  daughter  of  Claud  Hamilton,  second  Baron  of 
Strabane,  by  his  wife,  the  Lady  Sarah  Gordon,  a  lady  who  got  into 
great  trouble  by  her  marriage,  after  the  death  of  her  first 
husband,  with  the  ill-fated  Sir  Phelim  O'Neil. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  451 


The  Hazelwood  family  have  played  an  important  part  in 
public  affairs,  more  especially  in  connexion  with  the  army. 
Captain  James  Wynne  came  over  with  Major-General  Kirk,  in 
that  general's  expedition  to  raise  the  siege  of  Derry,  and  was 
sent  by  him  to  Enniskillen  as  colonel  of  dragoons.  The  colonel 
distinguished  himself  at  the  battle  of  Newtown  Butler,  rose 
through  time  to  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General,  and  was  killed 
at  the  battle  of  Malplaquet.  Lieutenant-General  Owen  Wynne, 
brother  to  James,  after  rising  to  the  first  place  in  the  army  in 
Ireland,  was  sent  by  the  Government  in  1719  to  Galway,  to 
defend  that  city  against  an  apprehended  attack  of  the  Spaniards. 
It  was  the  Lieutenant-General  that  built  Hazelwood  house. 
He  died  in  1736,  and  was  Commander-in-Chief  in  Ireland  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  In  1743  another  member  of  the  family, 
Colonel  Wynne,  was  Governor  of  Galway.  While  thus  distin- 
guished in  the  army,  they  were  hardly  less  conspicuous  in  civil 
life,  several  of  them  being  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  some 
filling  the  office  of  Custos  Rotulorum,  and  some  that  of  Governor 
of  the  county  Sligo. 

In  their  capacity  of  landlords  and  country  gentlemen,  they 
have  been  differently  judged  by  different  writers.  Mr.  Wake- 
field's  estimate,  for  instance,  of  the  present  Mr.  Wynne's  grand- 
father, Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  is  very  different  from  that  of  Mr. 
Inglis'.  If  Wakefield  had  a  brief  for  praising  that  gentleman, 
he  could  hardly  have  been  more  eulogistic  than  he  actually  is, 
holding  him  forth  as  a  model  for  general  imitation  under  every 
respect — as  a  landlord,  as  a  lover  of  his  country,  as  a  man  of 
business,  as  a  magistrate,  as  a  friend  of  the  people.  The  follow- 
ing may  be  taken  as  a  fair  specimen  of  this  writer's  references 
to  Mr.  Owen  Wynne: — "If  a  high  and  dignified  sense  of 
honour ;  inflexible  integrity ;  close  application  to  business ;  an 
ardent  zeal  for  the  interest  of  one's  native  country,  displayed  in 
cultivating  its  soil,  and  improving  its  inhabitants,  can  create 
esteem  and  respect,  then  ought  this  gentleman  have  a  seat  in 
Parliament,  where  the  assistance  of  his  talents  and  experience, 
at  this  perilous  time,  might  be  of  essential  service,  As  a  great 


452  HISTORY   OF   SL1GO. 


landed  proprietor,  he  spreads  civilization  around  him  by  residing 
on  his  estate,  and  spending  a  princely  income  among  his 
tenants ;  as  a  father  in  the  hosom  of  a  numerous  and  happy 
family,  who  respect  and  adore  him,  he  sets  an  example  which 
cannot  fail  of  having  a  beneficial  influence  on  his  servants, 
neighbours,  and  dependants ;  as  a  magistrate,  discharging  the 
duties  of  that  important  office,  with  strict  attention  to  impartial 
justice,  he  is  enabled  to  repress  disorder,  and  to  maintain  peace 
and  tranquillity." 

So  far  so  good ;  but  now,  on  the  fair  dealing  old  principle  of, 
Audi  alteram  partem,  let  us  hear  what  Mr.  Inglis  has  got  to 
say  regarding  the  same  Mr.  Wynne.  Far  from  endorsing 
Wakefield's  character  of  him,  he  singles  him  out  from  the  land- 
lords of  the  county  for  special  censure  as  a  rack-renting  and 
anti- Catholic  proprietor.  This  is  Inglis's  delineation  of  Mr.  Owen 
Wynne,  and  it  is  a  curious  pendant  to  the  picture  of  Wakefield : 
— "  The  land  in  the  barony  of  Carbury,  especially  Mr.  Wynne's, 
is  let  extremely  high.  Mr.  Wynne's  tenants  are,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  in  arrear;  but  he  is  one  of  those  short-sighted 
landlords  who  is  resolved  at  all  costs  to  keep  up  the  nominal 
amount  of  his  rent-roll.  His  rents  are  taken  in  dribbles,  in 
shillings  and  copper;  and  agents  have  been  known  to  accompany 
tenants  to  market  with  their  produce,  lest  any  part  of  its  value 
should  escape  the  landlord's  pocket.  This  gentleman  has  been 
at  great  pains  to  establish  a  Protestant  tenantry  on  his  estate  ; 
and  in  the  appearance  of  their  houses,  etc.,  there  is  some  neat- 
ness and  some  show  of  comfort ;  but  these  are  not,  in  reality,  in 
any  better  condition  than  the  other  tenantry.  None  of  them 
are  able  to  do  more  than  barely  to  subsist ;  and  they,  as  well  as 
the  Catholic  tenantry,  are  generally  in  arrear,  indeed  I  found  no 
one  exception."  These  are  weighty  charges ;  and  whatever  may 
be  said  of  the  allegation  of  rack-renting,  it  will  hardly  be  denied, 
by  any  one  acquainted  with  the  composition  of  the  Hazel  wood 
tenantry,  that  the  owners  of  the  estate,  or  those  who  served 
them  as  agents,  have  been  exceptionally  sectarian  in  the  selec- 
tion of  tenants. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  453 


Apart  from  this  one-sidedness,  for  which,  probably,  he  is  little 
accountable,  the  present  owner  of  Hazelwood  is  a  fair-minded 
and  high-minded  gentleman,  able  and  willing,  if  occasion 
required,  to  make  sacrifices  for  the  neighbour,  as  his  conduct  at 
the  Lough  Gill  regatta,  of  1881,  sufficiently  proves.  On  that 
occasion,  when  John  Patterson  and  J.  Reynolds  were  drowned, 
Mr.  Wynne,  though  alone  in  a  slight  punt,  seeing  Richard 
Hudson,  the  companion  of  the  drowned  men,  fainting  and 
sinking,  paddled  bravely  to  him,  and,  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
his  own  life,  saved  that  of  the  drowning  youth.  What  enhanced 
Mr.  Wynne's  conduct  on  the  occasion,  is,  that  the  crew  of  a  pair- 
oared  boat,  to  whom  he  called  to  join  him  in  saving  Hudson, 
instead  of  responding  to  his  appeal,  and  doing  their  duty, 
skulked  cowardly  away  with  their  boat  in  another  direction. 
The  public  were  proud  of  Mr.  Wynne's  heroic  act,  and  the  Jury, 
in  the  inquest  on  poor  Patterson  and  Reynolds,  added  the 
following  rider  to  their  verdict : — "  We  unanimously  return  our 
most  cordial  thanks  to  Mr.  Wynne  for  the  manliness  and  courage 
he  displayed  in  having,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  rescued  Mr. 
Hudson." 

It  is  agreed,  on  all  hands,  that  the  ladies  of  the  Hazelwood 
family  have  been  conspicuous  for  the  faithful  and  exemplary 
discharge  of  the  duties  incumbent  on  the  high  social  station 
which  they  held  in  the  neighbourhood.  Though  Lady  Sarah, 
the  wife  of  Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  died  so  far  back  as  1833,  the 
memory  of  her  almsgiving  and  other  charities  is  still  fresh 
all  round  the  parish  of  Calry  ;  Lady  Anne  Wynne,  her  daughter- 
in-law,  and  wife  of  the  Right  Honourable  John  Wynne,  was 
equally  devoted  to  the  poor  and  miserable  ;  and  it  was  the  Good 
Samaritan  virtues,  and  the  exquisite  womanly  sensibilities  and 
sympathies,  in  regard  to  the  suffering  classes,  of  the  late  Mrs. 
Wynne — much  more  than  any  other  circumstance  connected 
with  her  beautiful  life,  or  singularly  sad  death — which,  on  the 
day  of  her  decease,  5th  March,  1887,  sent  a  thrill  of  sorrow 
through  every  household,  high  and  low,  in  the  county,  and  on 
the  day  of  her  funeral  attracted  after  her  honoured  remains  such 


454  HISTORY   OF   SLTGO. 


crowds  of  rich  and  poor,  Protestants  and  Catholics,  as,  up  to 
that,  were  unparalleled  in  the  county  of  Sligo  for  numbers  and 
the  feelings  that  swayed  them,  and  are  little  likely  to  be 
paralleled  there  again,  in  these  respects,  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

The  ORMSBYS  are  second  to  no  family  of  the  county  in  social 
standing.  They  came  over  from  Lincolnshire.  According  to  a 
pedigree  of  the  Ormsby  family,  lately  compiled  by  G.  J.  F. 
Fuller,  Esq.,  F.S.A.,  the  first  of  them  that  settled  in  Ireland  was 
Thomas,  who  was  a  younger  son  of  John,  and  who,  passing  to 
this  country,  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  married  a  granddaughter 
of  Sir  Nicholas  Malby.  The  eldest  son  of  this  marrriage  was 
Edmond,  who  was  twice  married :  first,  to  Susanna  Kelke,  by 
whom  he  had  Edward  Ormsby,  of  Tobervadda  in  county  Ros- 
common,  Anthony  Ormsby,  of  Pusgallen  in  county  Boscommon, 
and  Malby  Ormsby,  of  Cloghan,  county  Mayo  ;  and,  second,  to 
Elizabeth  Newman,  by  whom  he  had  issue  John  Ormsby, 
Moyvola,  county  Gal  way ;  Philip  Ormsby,  Annagh  or  Willow- 
brook,  county  Sligo;  and  Thomas  Ormsby,  Cummin,  county  Sligo. 
In  this  pedigree  the  son  of  Thomas  Ormsby  of  Cummin,  was 
Anthony,  who  figured,  under  the  Commonwealth,  as  one  of  the 
Tituladoes  of  the  county,  and,at  the  Restoration,  as  a  grantee  under 
the  Acts  of  Settlement  and  Explanation.  According  to  others 
Philip  and  Anthony  were  brothers  ;  but,  according  to  the  late 
Mrs.  Ormsby  Gore,  who  was  an  accomplished  genealogist,  they 
were  not  blood  relations  at  all — an  opinion,  however,  which  it  is 
not  easy  to  reconcile  with  their  arriving  in  Ireland  about  the 
same  time,  and  bearing  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same,  arms. 

Be  this  matter  of  genealogy  as  it  may,  Philip  and  Anthony 
fared  pretty  equally  in  the  county  Sligo  under  the  Acts  of  Settle- 
ment and  Explanation.  Philip  received,  in  the  barony  of  Car- 
bury,  the  lands  of  Bunluiny,  Tawnaphubble,  Leagh  Carrow- 
crane,  Faughts,  Lismarkrea,  Kilbride,  Lisduff,  Gowlane,  and  the 
island  of  Inismore,  or  Church  Island ;  and,  in  the  barony  of 
Leyney,  Carrownaworane,  Cungell,  Tober  Tillehy,  Tober  Scardan, 
Cashel  Loyne,  Carrowkeale,  and  Carrownagarkefree,  in  all  2,629 
statute  acres,  receiving,  by  the  same  grant,  10,238  statute  acres 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  455 


in  Leitrim  and  Longford.  And  by  letters  patent  of  the  Court 
of  Grace,  he  got  Shriff  and  other  denominations  in  the  half 
barony  of  Coolavin. 

Quarter  Master  Anthony  Ormsby,  after  having  been  Titulado 
of  Cargin  under  the  Cromwellian  regime,  received  from 
Charles  II.  Corlis  and  Cavan,  part  of  Aghamore,  Common,  the 
two  quarters  of  Scardan,  called  Lissanally  and  Rathanury, 
Drinahane,  seven  cartrons  in  Grange,  some  in  Loughineltine, 
Coolsoder,  Grogah,  and  Carrignagragh,  Tullagbe,  and  Corbullige, 
part  of  Clogherbeg,  and  part  of  Cloghermore — in  all  3,040  acres 
plantation  measure. 

Willowbrook  House,  the  seat  of  Philip  Ormsby's  descendants, 
was  built  in  or  about  1730,  from  a  design  by  the  same  architect 
that  drew  for  Hazel  wood  and  Hollybrook,  and  was  in  its  day  a 
striking  mansion  in  itself,  as  well  as  picturesquely  situated — 
commanding  fine  views  of  Lough  Gill  and  the  Sligo  and  Leitrim 
mountains.  Owing  to  the  great  election  contest  between 
William  Ormsby  and  Right  Honourable  Owen  "Wynne,  which 
is  described  in  another  page,  Willowbrook  House  was  abandoned 
by  its  owners,  and  has  not  been  since  occupied  by  them,  except 
for  some  short  time  that  William  Ormsby,  Collector  of  Sligo, 
sojourned  in  it.  Early  in  this  century  the  place  was  let  to  a 

Mr. ,  who  was  supposed  to  be  not  only  a  solvent  tenant, 

but,  what  was  much  more  important  in  the  circumstances,  a 
careful  one,  in  whose  hands  the  valuable  house  would  be  as  safe 

as  in  those  of  its  immediate  owners.  Mr. ,  however,  did 

not  prove  the  faithful  custodian  that  was  expected,  for  he  was 
no  sooner  installed  in  his  sumptuous  quarters  than  he  put  up  a 
private  still  in  the  house,  and  took  to  the  manufacture  of  poteen 
whiskey.  It  is  not  known  how  long  he  was  engaged  in  the 
contraband  business,  which,  no  doubt,  he  would  have  continued 
much  longer,  only  that  one  day  the  liquid,  in  some  process  it  was 
passing  through,  got  aflame  and  communicated  the  fire  to  the 
surrounding  woodwork,  with  the  result,  that  the  whole  house — 
fixtures,  floors,  and  roof — was  soon  a  pile  of  ashes,  the  fire  leaving 
nothing  standing  but  the  bare  walls,  which  are  still  there,  and 


456  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


in   their   weird   condition,    serve   to   remind   the  passer-by   of 

Mr. and  his  doings  in  the  family  mansion  of  the  Ormsbys. 

This  was  not  the  first  time  that  Willowbrook  gained  notoriety 
in  connexion  with  strong  drinks.  So  early  as  1809  a  great  stir 
was  occasioned  through  the  town  of  Sligo  and  the  neighbourhood, 
by  a  burglary  committed  on  the  cellar  there,  which  was  known  to 
be  well  stocked  with  wines  and  whiskeys.  At  that  time  Mr.  Owen 
Phibbs,  who  was  then  sojourning  for  the  winter  on  the  Conti- 
nent, tenanted  the  mansion ;  and  as  it  was  known  that,  before 
leaving,  he  had  replenished  his  cellar,  in  order  to  have  the  con- 
tents well  matured  upon  his  return,  some  of  the  reckless 
characters,  so  common  at  the  time,  broke  into  and  robbed  the 
place.  As  might  be  expected,  Mr.  Phibbs  felt  strongly  this  injury 
to  his  purse  and  his  palate,  and,  on  coming  home,  published, 
in  the  Sligo  Journal,  the  following  advertisement : — 

"  Whereas,  during  my  late  absence  from  home,  the  windows 
of  my  cellar  at  Willowbrook  were  broken  open  and  a  quantity 
of  spirits  stolen  from  there  ;  I  hereby  offer  a  reward  of  £50  to 
any  person  who  will  prosecute  to  conviction  the  perpetrators  of 
said  offence. 

"Willowbrook,  December  29fch,  1809. 

"OWEN  PHIBBS." 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  guilty  parties  were  discovered,  for,  if 
they  were,  we  should  probably  have  heard  more  of  the  case,  it 
being,  at  the  time,  a  hanging  matter. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  others  had  not  as  unpleasant  experience 
of  outrages  as  Mr.  Owen  Phibbs.  Three  years  or  so  before  this 
burglary,  he  was  obliged  to  offer  a  reward  of  50  guineas  for  the 
conviction  of  the  perpetrator  of  the  outrage  mentioned  in  the 
following  advertisement,  which  appeared  in  the  Sligo  Journal 
of  November  21st,  1806  :— - 

"50  GUINEAS  REWARD  ! 

"  Whereas,  on  the  night  of  Tuesday  last,  the  4th  instant,  a 
part  of  the  wall  of  my  Deer-Park,  on  the  lands  of  Ardcumber 
in  this  county  was  levelled,  and  two  of  the  Deer  in  the  said  Park 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  457 


shot.  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  by  me  on  prosecuting  to 
conviction  the  Perpetrator  or  Perpetrators  of  so  wanting  (sic) 
an  outrage. 

"  Willowbrook,  November  6th,  1806. 

"OwEN  PHIBBS." 

This  may  be  a  convenient  place  to  mention  that  Sligo  was 
one  of  the  first  counties  in  which  illicit  distillation  came  to  be 
practised.  Private  stills  were  very  numerous  in  the  early  part 
of  this  century  throughout  the  north-west  of  Ireland.  Wakefield 
tells  that  they  were  set  up  in  places  where  they  would  be  least 
expected,  as  in  the  kitchens  of  baronets  and  the  stables  of  clergy- 
men ;  and  he  might  have  added,  in  the  stores  of  merchants,  as 
happened  in  the  case  of  Messrs.  Scott  and  Patrickson,  Siigo. 
An  instance  is  given  in  the  History  of  Ballysadare  and  Kilvarnet 
(page  244,)  of  the  patronage  the  still  received  from  clergymen 
of  the  county. 

The  means  sometimes  employed  by  the  authorities  to  stop 
the  practice  only  served  to  stimulate  it.  The  fine  of  £50, 
levied  on  places  in  which  a  still  was  found,  led  to  collusion 
between  revenue  officers  and  private  distillers ;  the  latter,  by 
concert,  leaving  a  still  where  the  officers  would  find  it,  and  the 
officers,  paying  over,  in  due  time,  half  the  £50  to  their  obliging 
accomplices.  In  many  instances  the  revenue  officer  connived 
at  private  distillation,  and  his  usual  charge  for  doing  so  being 
well  known,  was  paid  more  regularly  than  the  taxes  of  the  State 
or  the  rent  of  the  landlord.  In  some  districts  poteen  whiskey 
was  sold  as  openly  as  if  the  dealer  had  a  formal  licence  for  the 
sale.  The  consequence  of  all  this  was,  that  the  country  was 
inundated  with  the  beverage  to  such  an  extent  that,  if  a  traveller, 
going  the  road,  called  to  a  way-side  house  for  a  drink  of  water,  he 
was  pretty  sure  to  receive  it  strongly  fortified  with  usquebaugh. 

Coming  back  from  this  little  digression :  The  Willowbrook 
Ormsbys  intermarried  with  the  first  families  of  the  country  ; 
the  Croftons  of  Moate,  the  Kings  of  Rockingham,  the  Gores 
of  Lissadell  and  Mayo,  the  Frenchs  of  Frenchpark,  and  the 
Wynnes  of  Hazelwood.  With  the  Wynnes  they  lived  on  terms 


458  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


of  exceptional  intimacy  till  the  election  con  test  of  1776  rendered 
them  as  hostile  to  each  other  as  they  had  been  before  friendly — 
an  hostility  which  lasted  down  to  1841,  when  the  present 
Lord  Harlech  came  forward,  for  the  first  time,  as  a  candidate 
for  the  representation  of  the  county  Sligo,  on  which  occasion, 
Mr.  Owen  Wynne,  forgetting  the  embittered  family  feud,  proved 
himself  a  warm  private  as  well  as  political  friend.  As  this 
election  contest  has  been  already  referred  to,  there  is  no  need  to 
dwell  further  on  it  here  except  to  note  that,  as  it  made  the 
Ormsbys  and  Wynnes  bitter  enemies  of  one  another,  so  it  divided 
the  whole  county  into  two  hostile  camps,  each  ranged  behind  its 
favourite  candidate,  and  sharing  to  the  full  all  his  resentments 
and  animosities. 

The  Willowbrook  family  gained  an  important  accession  of 
wealth  by  the  marriage  of  Owen  Ormsby  to  Margaret,  eldest 
daughter,  and,  ultimately,  heiress  of  William  Owen,  of  Porking- 
ton,  Shropshire.  The  issue  of  this  marriage,  Mary  Jane,  an 
only  child,  and  heiress  both  of  the  Ormsby  and  Owen  estates, 
became  the  wife  of  William  Gore,  who  assumed,  on  his  marriage, 
the  additional  name  of  Ormsby.  The  late  Lord  Harlech  was 
son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ormsby  Gore,  as  is  also  the  present  Lord 
Harlech,  who  is  himself  married  to  Lady  Emily  Charlotte  Sey- 
mour, eldest  surviving  daughter  of  Rear-Admiral  Sir  George 
Francis  Seymour,  and  sister  to  Francis,  present  Marquis  of 
Hertford.  His  lordship's  children  are  William  Seymour  Ormsby 
Gore,  George  Ralph  Charles  Ormsby  Gore,  Henry  Arthur 
Ormsby  Gore,  Seymour  Fitzroy  Ormsby  Gore,  and  Emily, 
married  to  Viscount  Ebrington,  eldest  son  of  Earl  of  Fortescue. 

The  late  Mrs.  Ormsby  Gore,  who  survived  her  husband  ten 
or  twelve  years,  and  died  in  1869,  was  a  singularly  kind-hearted 
lady.  Her  tenants  respected  and  loved  her  so  much  for  her 
goodness,  that  they  were  preparing  to  erect  a  costly  memorial 
in  her  honour,  when  her  family,  hearing  of  their  intention,  and 
taking  the  will  for  the  deed,  intimated  a  wish  that  the  matter 
should  proceed  no  further.  The  tenants,  acquiescing  in  the 
suggestion,  proceeded  no  further  with  their  preparations ;  but, 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  459 


the  memorial  which  their  gratitude  for  her  kindness  preserves 
in  their  hearts,  is  much  more  honourable  to  the  good  lady  than 
any  of  marble  or  stone  could  be. 

It  is  due  to  Lord  Harlech  to  record,  that  he  inherits  the 
benevolent  dispositions  of  his  mother.  Those  who  know  most 
about  his  dealings  with  his  tenants,  are  loudest  in  praise  of  his 
treatment  of  them.  To  the  old  followers  of  his  family  he  is 
equally  kind,  of  which,  an  instance  that  occurred  in  our  own 
neighbourhood  may  be  quoted  in  illustration : — Visiting,  near 
forty  years  ago,  the  Sligo  Workhouse,  and  finding  among  the 
inmates  an  old  man  named  John  Mullane,  who  had  been  in  his 
early  years  a  runner  or^kitchen-boy  at  Willowbrook,  his  Lord- 
ship had  the  poor  man  removed  to  suitable  private  lodgings, 
where  he  was  able  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  comfort. 
Many  would  admire  Lord  Harlech  more  for  this  "  touch  of 
nature,"  than  for  all  his  broad  acres  or  his  /amily  and  personal 
honours. 

While  speaking  of  the  Willowbrook  Ormsbys,  we  may  notice 
a  rather  eccentric  and  sensational  occurrence  in  which  a  cadet 
of  the  family  figured,  something  less  than  a  century  ago.  Being 
at  Paris  in  the  full  swing  of  the  French  Revolution,  when  the 
white  flag  was  detested  and  in  the  dust,  and  the  drapeau  rouge 
was  an  object  almost  of  adoration,  he  appeared  one  night  in  a 
leading  theatre,  wearing  a  white  cockade.  The  moment  the 
hated  object  was  observed,  the  occupants  of  the  pit  and  gallery 
sprang  to  their  feet,  and  yelled  in  a  rage — A  bas  la  cockarde 
blanche.  Young  Ormsby  seemed  the  only  person  unmoved  in  the 
house ;  and  when  he  rose  quietly  in  his  box,  and  stated  in  the  best 
French  he  could  muster,  that  he  was  an  Irishman,  and  wore  the 
emblem  in  honour  of  his  own  king  and  country,  and  that  he 
would  part  with  it  only  with  his  life,  his  explanation  and 
intrepidity  pleased  everybody,  admiration  succeeded  indignation, 
and  instead  of  A  bas  la  cockarde  blanche,  the  theatre  resounded 
with  repeated  cries  of  Vive,  vive  Vlrlandais. 

The  Cummen  and  Belvoir  Ormsbys  have  long  abandoned  their 
handsome  seats,  Belvoir  being  now  an  utter  ruin,  and  Cummen 


460  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


little  better.  George  Ormsby,  the  last  of  tbe  family  who 
occupied  Belvoir,  died  on  December  29th,  1809.  Thomas 
Ormsby,  of  Cummen,  married  a  daughter  of  Teige  O'Hara,  of 
Leyney,  and  dying  in  1662,  was  buried  in  St.  John's,  Sligo,  as 
appears  from  a  record  in  Sir  Bernard  Burke's  office,  being 
probably  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  buried  there  after  Sir 
Roger  Jones.  It  would  appear  from  Lady  Morgan's  Patriotic 
Sketches,  that  Cummen  was  still  occupied  by  its  owners  in  the 
first  decade  of  this  century,  when  her  Ladyship,  as  Sydney 
Owenson,  was  a  guest  there. 

The  first  of  the  Ormsbys  that  occupied  Castle  Dargan,  was 
Stephen  Ormsby,  grandson  of  Malby.  This  Stephen  is  always 
spoken  of  in  the  neighbourhood  as  Stephen  Na  Gliggagh,  from 
some  peculiarly  constructed  vehicle  that  he  drove.  The  present 
representative  of  this  branch,  John  Robert  Ormsby,  resides  now 
in  America,  where  he  is  very  popular,  as  he  always  was  in 
Ireland  before  his  emigration.  He  is  married  to  Mary 
Middleton,  daughter  of  the  extensive  and  enterprising  merchant 
of  Sligo,  the  late  William  Middleton,  Esq.,  J.P.,  by  whom  he  has 
issue,  Nicholson  Ormsby,  born  5th  September,  1875;  Eliza 
Middleton  Ormsby,  16th  October,  1876;  William  Middleton 
Ormsby,  22nd  January,  1878 ;  John  Robert  Ormsby,  17th 
February,  1879 ;  Alexander  Irwin  Ormsby,  25th  February, 
1880;  Amy  Frances,  25th  April,  1881;  and  Frances  Mary, 
14th  October,  1882. 

It  is  not  quite  ascertained  to  which  branch  of  the  county 
Sligo  Ormsbys,  a  gentleman  named  William  Ormsby  belonged, 
who  was  tried  at  Sligo  for  wilful  murder,  at  the  March  Assizes 
of  1731.  Such  particulars  as  are  known  of  this  sensational 
trial,  will  be  stated  in  a  future  page.  For  the  present  it  may 
be  enough  to  give  the  following  reference  to  the  proceedings, 
which  occurs  in  Pue's  Occurrences,  for  March  23rd,  1731 : — 
"The  tryal  of  William  Ormsby,  Esq.,  for  the  murder  of 
Catherine  Conaghane,  in  July,  1727,  came  on  last  Friday  at  the 
Assizes,  before  Mr.  Baron  St.  Leger,  and  Mr.  Attorney  General  ; 
The  tryal  lasted  from  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  till  four  in 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  461 


the  afternoon,  when  the  Jury  received  their  charge  and  went  in, 
where  they  continued  till  nine  o'clock  next  morning,  and  then 
brought  in  their  verdict,  not  guilty." 

The  PARKES  of  Dunally  are  one  of  the  oldest  Anglo-Irish 
families  in  the  county.  They  came  to  this  country  with  Sir 
Roger  Jones,  who  was  in  Sligo  in  the  first  years  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  probably  earlier,  as  he  succeeded  Sir  James 
Fullerton,  in  1606,  as  constable  of  the  castle  of  Sligo.  Sir  Roger 
was  married  twice.  By  his  first  wife  he  had  issue,  Thomas 
Jones,  of  Banada,  and,  at  least,  one  daughter,  Mary  Jones,  who 
was  married,  first,  to  John  Ridge,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  of  high 
public  office  in  the  province,  as  also  of  large  landed  estate ;  and 
secondly,  to  Sir  James  Dillon,  who  took  a  leading  part  on  the 
Irish  side,  in  the  ten  years'  war  started  by  the  insurrection  of 
1641.  It  is  probable  that  Alice  Jones,  the  wife  of  Robuck 
Crean,  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  Roger,  though  it  is,  perhaps,  as 
likely  that  she  was  the  daughter  of  a  brother  of  his  who  lived  in 
Sligo  at  the  same  time. 

Sir  Roger  Jones'  second  wife  was  Mary,  daughter  of  Roger 
Smith,  of  Crasmarsh,  in  Staffordshire,  of  whom  there  was  no 
issue.  Sir  Roger's  sister  was  married  to  Roger  Parke,  to  whom 
she  bore  two  sons,  Robert  Parke  and  William  Parke,  from  the 
latter  of  whom  the  Parkes  of  Dunally  descend ;  this  William 
Parke  being  set  down,  in  the  Rental  of  1692,  as  tenant  of 
Dunally,  by  letters  patent  of  Court  of  Grace.  The  elder  son, 
Robert  Parke,  married  Anne  Povey,  of  county  Roscommon,  by 
whom  he  had  one  child,  a  daughter  and  heiress,  Anne  Parke, 
married  successively  to  Sir  Francis  Gore,  Knight,  and  Percy 
Gethins,  Esq.  In  the  documents  of  the  period,  as  well  before 
as  after  her  second  marriage,  she  is  styled,  after  her  first  hus- 
band, Dame  Anne  Gore. 

Robert  Parke,  or  Captain  Robert  Parke,  as  he  was  commonly 
called,  occupied  as  high  a  position  in  the  county  as  any  man  of 
his  day.  He  was  member  of  Parliament  in  1661,  for  the  county 
Leitrim,  and  resided  in  the  castellated  mansion  of  Newtown,  in 
that  county,  which  must  have  been  built  by  himself,  his  father, 


462  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


or  his  uncle,  Sir  Roger  Jones,  and  which  is  well  situated  at  the 
head  of  Lough  Gill,  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  O'Rorke's 
old  castle  of  Newtown.  Though  he  kept  on  good  terms  with  the 
Commonwealth  authorities,  from  whom  he  rented,  in  1656,  the 
tithes  of  several  parishes  through  the  county,  he  received  from 
Charles  II.,  at  the  Restoration,  under  the  Acts  of  Settlement 
and  Explanation,  grants  of  large  estates  both  in  Sligo  and 
Leitrim.  At  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  to  Sir  Francis  Gore, 
Newtown  and  other  lands  were  passed  to  the  Gores ;  and  at  her 
subsequent  marriage  to  Percy  Gethin,  several  parcels  of  land  in 
the  parishes  of  St.  John  and  Calry,  were  passed  to  that  gentle- 
man. Sir  Francis  had  issue,  nine  sons  and  three  daughters  by 
Anne  Parke ;  one  of  the  daughters,  Isabella,  marrying  Adam 
O'Hara,  of  Annaghmore,  and  being  the  person  whose  name  is 
thus  recorded  on  a  curious  monument  in  the  Annaghmore 
demesne : — "  Erected  by  M.  Isabella  O'Hara,  alias  Gore, 
daughter  to  Francis  Gore,  Knight,  of  Sligoe,  in  May  1709." 
Anne  Park  is  the  ancestress  of  the  Gores  Booth  of  Lissadel. 

The  Parkes  have  been  always  popular  in  the  neighbourhood ; 
and  the  late  Sir  William,  who  was  knighted  by  Lord  Mulgrave, 
took  a  prominent  part  in  his  Lordship's  reception  in  1837, 
went  with  Right  Reverend  Dr.  Burke,  Sir  James  Crofton,  and 
others,  to  Camphill  to  meet  him,  accompanied  his  triumphal 
procession  to  Sligo,  and  presided  at  the  banquet  given  in  his 
honour,  in  the  town  on  that  occasion.  His  Excellency's  admirers 
wished  to  present  an  address  to  him  in  the  court-house ;  and  on 
Mr.  James  Knott,  of  Battlefield,  who  was  high  sheriff  for  the 
year,  refusing  the  use  of  the  court-house,  Mr.  Parke,  as  a  member 
of  the  court-house  committee,  got  the  key  and  opened  it  in 
defiance  of  the  sheriff  and  the  sheriffs  partisans.  This  spirited 
act  pleased  Earl  Mulgrave,  who,  on  entering  the  place,  directed 
Mr.  Parke  to  kneel,  and  then  accosted  him  in  the  usual 
formula,  "Arise,  Sir  William." 

It  was  a  pity  that  a  previous  engagement  prevented  Lord 
Mulgrave  from  waiting  for  the  banquet  of  the  evening,  at  which 
the  new  knight  presided — for  he  would  enjoy  an  incident  or 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  463 


two  of  the  proceedings.  Sir  William,  it  is  said,  abounded  in 
humour,  and  rather  lacked  eloquence  ;  and  people  seemed  at  a 
loss  to  know,  whether  they  should  refer  the  incidents  in  question 
to  his  surplus  humour  or  his  defective  command  of  language 
One  of  those  little  ambiguities  occurred  when  at  the  close  of  his 
preface  to  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Burke's  health,  he  wound  up  with  the 
remark,  "  His  Lordship  is  a  very  nice  gentleman,  especially  on 
horseback ;  "  and  the  other,  when  passing  to  the  next  toast,  he 
observed,  "Gentlemen,  or  whatever  else  you  are,  fill  your 
glasses."  Everybody  enjoyed  those  curious  sallies,  and  nobody 
more  than  Sir  William  himself. 

Dunally,  which  is  a  fertile,  well-timbered,  and  pleasant  tract, 
lies  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Kilsellagh  river.  The  Four  Masters, 
under  the  year  1602,  state: — "The  place  at  which  Caffar 
O'Donnell  had  his  residence  and  fortress  at  this  time  was  Dun 
Aille,  to  the  west  of  Sligo  ; "  and  O'Donovan,  in  a  note  to  this 
entry,  identifies  the  place  with  that  which  Mr.  Roger  Parke  now 
owns  and  occupies,  though  the  identification  is  by  no  means  clear. 
It  is,  on  the  contrary,  pretty  certain  that  the  Dun  Aille  of  the 
annalists  lies  in  Coolerra,  as  it  is  said  to  be  to  the  west  of  Sligo, 
while  the  Parke  or  Calry  Dunally  is  situated  to  the  north  or 
north-east  of  the  town. 

And,  in  any  case,  the  authority  to  which  O'Donovan  refers — 
the  Partition  Deed  of  the  O'Connor  Sligo  estate,  so  far  from 
hearing  him  out,  upsets  his  theory.  The  full  statement  in  the 
Deed,  of  which  O'Donovan  quotes  only  a  part,  is  as  follows : 
"Also  half  the  castle  of  Downally  and  the  lands  of  Lecarrowcrin, 
being  half  a  quarter  and  containing  153  acres,  1  rood,  0  perches 
of  profitable  land,  and  3  acres,  32  perches  unprofitable,  mering 
and  bordering  on  Carrownabrew,  and  situate  in  Collary  in  the 
barony  of  Carbery,  and  county  of  Sligo  aforesaid."  Now,  even 
if  the  Dun  Aille  of  the  Four  Masters  were  that  of  Calry,  it 
would  follow  clearly  from  the  juxtaposition,  in  the  above 
extract,  of  Downally  with  Carrowcrin  and  Carrownabree,  places 
certainly  in  Coolerra,  that  the  Downally  of  the  Partition  Deed 
must  belong  to  Coolerra.  The  denomination  "  Collary  "  is  not 


464  HISTORY    OF   SLIGO. 


decisive  one  way  or  the  other,  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  word 
itself  to  show  whether  it  stands  for  Calry  or  Coolerra. 

Dun  Aille  signifies  the  fort  of  the  cliff  or  rock,  and  the  Calry 
Dunally  has  the  name,  it  is  said,  from  a  whitish  boulder  which 
lies  beside  a  rath  near  Mr.  Parke's  house. 

In  a  letter  of  Mr.  Roger  Parke,  the  present  proprietor  of 
Dunally,  which  is  found  in  the  new  edition  of  O'Hart's  Irish 
Pedigrees  (p.  675,)  the  writer  supposes  that  the  Parke  family 
were  "  followers  of  the  great  Earl  of  Strafford ; "  but,  in  this,  he 
does  an  injustice  to  his  family,  for  Roger  Parke,  their  ancestor,  was 
in  Sligo  with  his  brother-in-law,  Sir  Roger  Jones,  in  the  first  years 
of  the  17th  century,if  not  earlier,  and,  therefore,  near  half  a  century 
before  Strafford  came  to  Ireland.  And  this  Roger's  son,  Captain 
Robert  Parke,  appears  to  have  lived  at  Newtown,  at  the  head  of 
Lough  Gill,  'since  1609,  and  certainly  occupied  the  place  in 
1635  ;  for  in  the  Repertory  to  Decrees  of  Charles  I.,  we  find, 
under  date  of  17th  June,  1635,  the  case  of  "  Sir  William  Irwin, 
Knight,  Sir  John  Spottiswood,  Knight,  Sir  Roger  Jones,  Knight, 
and  Robert  Parke,  of  Newtown,  in  the  County  Leitrim,  Gent., 
plaintiffs ;  Sir  James  Areskin,  Knight,  of  Her  Majesty's  Privy 
Council,  defendant."  Captain  Parke  held  Newtown  in  1642 
also ;  for  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton,  on  the  night  of  his  raid  on 
Sligo,  in  1642,  made  him  a  prisoner,  and  placed  a  creature  of 
his  own  over  the  Newtown  garrison. 

No  doubt,  at  the  surrender  of  the  Connaught  fortresses,  in 
1652,  to  the  Parliamentary  forces,  Donogh  Hart  occupied  the 
place,  but  it  was  only  as  military  governor,  just  as  Sir  Teague 
O'Regan,  at  the  same  time,  was  in  occupation  of  Sligo,  Major 
Bryan  O'Rorke,  of  Ballyshannon,  and  Colonel  William  Taaffe,  of 
Ballinafad ;  though  these  military  officers  had  no  claim  of  private 
ownership  to  those  places. 

Of  late  a  new-fangled  origin  has  been  assigned  for  the  name  of 
Newtown,  but  without  a  particle  of  reason  or  authority  to  support 
it.  From  time  immemorial  the  place  has  been  known  by  English- 
speaking  people  as  Newtown,  which  is  the  exact  equivalent  of 
its  old  Irish  name  Baile  nua.  It  has  been  even  asserted,  in  the 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  465 


face  of  notorious  facts,  that  the  place  was  never  called  Baile  nua, 
though  it  is  thus  designated  in  so  well-known  an  authority  as 
the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  where  it  is  mentioned  under  the  year 
1581,  as  Baile  nua  Hi  Ruairc,  (i.e.)  Newtown  O'Rorke.  Like 
the  rest  of  Leitrim,  it  belonged,  under  Celtic  rule,  to  the 
O'Rorkes,  and  the  O'Rorkes  alone. 

There  is  no  spot  in  the  county  that  has  stronger  claims  on  the 
attention  of  the  antiquary  than  the  townland  of  Deerpark,  an 
enclosure  of  about  three  miles  in  circuit  for  Mr.  Wynne's  deer. 
The  surface  of  this  tract,  and  of  the  surrounding  district,  consists, 
for  the  most  part,  of  steep  upland  hillocks,  and  deep  bowl-shaped 
hollows,  The  highest  of  the  hillocks  rises  in  Deerpark,  reach- 
ing an  altitude  of  about  500  feet  above  sea  level,  standing 
between  the  little  lakes  of  Calgach  and  Lougheneltin,  and  com- 
manding the  finest  views  of  Lough  Gill,  of  Sligo  river  and 
harbour,  and  of  the  Leitrim,  Slieve-da-En,  and  Slieve  Gamh 
mountains.  It  is  this  particular  elevation  that  invests  the 
townland  of  Deerpark  with  so  much  antiquarian  interest. 

At  the  base  of  the  hill  is  the  site  of  the  old  religious  establish- 
ment of  Clogher,  now  and  from  time  immemorial,  used  as  a 
burying  place.  The  graveyard  being  neatly  walled,  and  lined 
in  part  with  trees,  looks  well  from  a  distance,  but  a  near  view 
shows  the  interior  overrun  with  weeds,  which  cover  and  conceal 
the  tombs,  and  give  the  place  a  neglected  and  disordered  look. 
Some  remains  of  an  oblong  building  that  ran  from  east  to  west, 
and  measured  52  feet  long  and  21  wide,  interior  measurement, 
are  still  in  their  place,  though  the  eastern  gable  and  south  side- 
wall  are  levelled  to  the  ground,  while  only  about  12  feet  high 
of  the  west  gable  and  north  sidewall  continue  standing.  A  very 
fine  Irish  cross,  set  over  the  grave  of  the  late  much-lamented  Mrs. 
James  O'Connor,  is  the  most  striking  object  in  the  place.  It 
bears  the  inscription  : — 


VOL.  I.  2  G 


466 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


IN  AFFECTIONATE  REMEMBRANCE  OF 

EMILY  KATE, 

THE  BELOVED   AND   DEVOTED   WIFE   OF 
JAMES  CHARLES  O'CONNOR, 

OF  BALLYGLASS. 
BORN  21ST  JULY,  1844; 

DIED  1ST  MAY,  1872. 
MAY  SHE  REST  IN  PEACE. 

More  than  half-way  up  the  slope  is  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able cashels  of  the  country,  unique,  as  far  as  the  writer  is  aware, 
in  its  plan  and  mode  of  construction.  It  consists  of  three  concen- 
tric circles  of  stones,  each  divided  from  the  other  hy  a  three  feet 


PLAN   ON   THE  DEERPARK  CASHEL.* 

ring  of  clear  ground,  the  outside  circle  of  stones  being  eight  feet 
thick,  the  middle,  which  is  the  chief  one,  thirteen  feet,  and  the 
inside  one  eight  feet.  Within  the  inmost  circle  an  L  shaped 
cave  or  trench,  now  unroofed,  but  formerly  covered  with  huge 
stones  or  flags,  slopes  from  the  surface  to  a  depth  of  four  feet, 
the  sides  being  lined  with  uncemented  masonry,  the  stones  of 
which  are  of  moderate  size  and  put  neatly  together. 

•Drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr.  Wakeman,   from  a  sketch  by  Mr.  James 
O'Connor,  Ballyglass. 


HISTORY    OF  SLIGO. 


467 


Remarkable  as  is  this  piece  of  antiquity,  it  is  thrown  into  the 
shade  by  another  relic  of  the  past,  which  crowns  the  hill,  and  which 
is  called  by  some  the  Giant's  Grave,  and  by  others,  the  Druid's 
Altar.  In  its  plan  it  is  admittedly  unique.  As  a  glance  at  the 
illustration  will  give  a  better  idea  of  it  than  any  verbal  descrip- 
tion, it  will  be  enough  to  note  here  that  the  structure  is  an 
oblong  of  something  more  than  100  feet  in  length,  outlined  by 
large  stones,  three  to  six  feet  high,  and  set  on  edge ;  that  it 
consists  of  three  divisions,  a  centre,  and  two  wings  or  aisles — 
the  centre  being  49  feet  long  and  25  wide — the  west  wing 
which  is  of  an  apse  shape,  23  feet  long  and  12  wide,  and  the 


B 


PLAN  OF  DRUID'S  ALTAR  WITH  ITS  TRILITHON  OPES,    A.  B.  0.* 

east  wing,  which  is  divided  longitudinally  into  three  narrow 
compartments,  23  feet  long  and  about  the  same  wide ;  and  that 
the  wings  communicate  with  the  centre  by  three  trilithon  opes 
or  doors,  A.B.C.,  each  trilithon  formed  by  two  jamb  stones  and  one 
capstone — one  trilithon,  A.,  standing  between  the  west  end  and 
centre,  and  two,  B.  and  C.,  between  east  end  and  centre,  that  is,  one 
for  each  of  two  of  the  three  compartments  into  which  that  wing  is 

*  Drawn  on  the  wood  by  Mr.   Wakeman    from  a  sketch  by  Mr.  James 
O'Connor,  Ballyglass. 


468  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


divided  ;  the  third  compartment,  which  is  the  middle  one  of  the 
three,  and  which  has  no  open  into  the  centre,  serving,  appar- 
ently, only  as  a  passage  between  the  other  two.  It  should  be 
mentioned  that  an  open  of  four  feet  in  the  south  sidewall  of  the 
centre  was  the  entrance  from  the  outside  to  this  part  of  the 
structure,  while  entrance  from  the  wings  into  it  was  afforded  by 
the  trilithon  opes  ;  and,  when  it  is  added,  that  two  flags,  which, 
run  across  the  western  wing,  with,  however,  a  passage  between 
them,  divide  that  wing  into  two  parts,  and  fit  it,  probably,  for  the 
purpose  which  the  longitudinal  divisions  serve  in  the  east  wing, 
all  is  said  that  need  be  in  the  way  of  description. 

It  is  not  much  to  the  credit  of  Irishmen,  that  they  have 
shown  so  little  interest  in  the  Druid's  Altar,  which  is  the  most 
singular  monument  of  antiquity  in  the  country,  and  which  is 
sometimes  compared  with  Stonehenge.  Englishmen  have  acted 
very  differently  in  regard  to  Stonehenge,  for  they  have  spared 
no  pains,  though  hitherto  without  much  result,  to  discover  its 
nature  and  object.  All  sorts  of  conjectures  and  theories  have 
been  started  by  them  as  to  its  character : — It  was  a  pagan 
temple ;  it  was  a  planisphere  ;  it  was  an  orrery  ;  it  was  a  place 
of  political  assemblies ;  it  was  a  stand-like  centre  of  public 
games ;  it  was  a  monument  of  450  British  nobles,  murdered  at  a 
conference  between  Hengist  and  Yortigern  ;  it  was  an  ante- 
diluvian temple,  erected  under  the  immediate  superintendence 
of  Adam.  All  these  theories  and  a  dozen  others,  equally  pro- 
bable or  improbable,  have  had  their  advocates,  who  have  written 
volumes  which  count  by  the  hundred  in  support  of  their  respective 
views.  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  problem  is  still  unsolved  ; 
but  it  must  also  be  admitted,  that  the  efforts  made  to  master  it, 
are  as  creditable  to  all  concerned,  as  the  neglect  of  the  Druid's 
Altar  is  the  reverse  to  those  who  might  throw  light  on  it,  but 
who  are  too  incurious  or  too  indolent  to  make  the  attempt, 

In  the  absence  of  opinions  or  conjectures  from  more  com- 
petent quarters,  the  writer  ventures  to  think,  that  it  is  one  of 
three  objects,  two  of  which  are  mentioned  by  old  writers  in 
connexion  with  Calry.  One  of  these  two  is  a  religious  establish- 


HISTORY  OF  SLIQO.  4-69 


merit,  in  which  Saints  Osnata,  Muadhnata,  and  Talulla,*  sisters 
of  St.  Molaisse,  of  Devenish,  were  honoured  with  a  joint  festival ; 
the  place  to  which  this  establishment  belonged,  being  called 
Enach-ard  or  High  Annagh ;  and  as  there  is  no  spot  in  the 
whole  parish  of  Calry  or  Annagh  that  answers  so  well  to  this 
description  as  the  Deerpark  hill,  inasmuch  as  it  rises  higher  than 
the  rest  of  the  parish,  excepting  the  mere  mountain,  so  it  is  pro- 
bable enough,  that  the  mysterious  Druid's  Altar  is  what  remains 
of  the  religious  establishment  in  question,  the  centre  being  the 
chapel,  and  the  wings  the  cells  of  the  religious.  Looking  at 
the  Druid's  Altar  at  present — with  modern  ideas  of  a  monastery 
of  monks  or  nuns  in  the  mind — it  would  need  no  small  effort 
to  realise  a  monastery  on  this  bleak  hill,  within  those  uncouth 
stones,  with  no  covering,  apparently,  but  the  canopy  of  heaven  ; 
but  if  we  carry  back  our  thoughts  to  the  sixth  or  seventh 


*  They  are  thus  commemorated  in  the  Martyrology  of  Tallaght,  at  the  6th 
January,  "Inghen  Natfraoich  in  Eanach  Ard,"  that  is,  the  daughters  of 
Natfraich,  in  Eanach  Ard. 

In  the  Martyrology  of  Donegal,  they  are  separately  mentioned  thus : — • 
"Muadhnat,  Virgin.  Caille  is  the  name  of  her  place  in  Carbery,  of  Drum- 
cliffe.  Talulla,  Abbess  of  Kildare.  Osnat,  Virgin.  These  three  were  the 
three  sisters  of  Mollaise  of  Devenish." 

Archdall's  Monasticon,  page  633,  states,  "The  saints  and  sisters  Odnata, 
Talulla,  and  Muadhnata,  lived  about  the  year  580,  and  aie  honored  in 
Enachaird ;  which  is  now  unknown,  but  was  probably  in  Carbury."  On  this 
statement  of  Archdall,  Dr.  Lanigan,  who  is  always  fond  of  tripping  up  the 
author  of  the  Monasticon,  observes  in  a  note  : — "  Archdall  thinks  Enachaird 
might  have  been  in  Carbury,  but  there  is  no  Annagh  in  that  barony." — (Ecclesi- 
astical  History,  Vol.  II.,  p.  328).  Here  it  is  Lanigan,  and  not  Archdall,  that 
is  wrong.  In  his  text,  the  learned  author  of  the  Ecclesiastical  History  says, 
"  Three  sisters  of  Molaisse  of  Devenish,  Osnata,  Muadhnata,  and  Talulla,  are 
mentioned  in  the  calendars  at  6th  January.  A  joint  festival  of  these  three 
holy  sisters  was  kept  at  Enachaird,  probably  the  place  now  called  Annagh,  in 
the  county  of  Leitrim,  and  barony  of  Drumahaire." 

To  complete  these  references,  the  following  note  of  Colgan  (Acta  Sanctorum, 
p.  339)  is  added — "Osnata  fuit  filia  Nadfraici,  et  soror  S.  Molassii  Damhinis- 
ensis  et  sanctarum,  Talullse  et  Muadhnatae,  juxta  Marian:  ad  6  Januarii,  quo 
die,  ait,  harum  trium  sororum  festum  celebrari.  Eodem  die  de  eis  agit 
Aengussius  auct :  et  Martyrologium  Tamlachtense  addens  quod  colantur  in 
Enac-ard.  Addit  et  Marian  S.  Muadhnatam  coli  in  loco  regionis  Cairbre,  qui 
Caille  appellatur,  et  S.  Talullam,  Kildairae,  ubi  fiut  Abbatissa." 


470  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


century ;  if  we  suppose  that  the  interstices  of  those  rude  blocks 
were  filled  up  and  staunched,  so  as  to  exclude  rain  and  wind ; 
that  a  roof  of  sods  or  branches,  and  thatch,  or  some  similar 
material,  rose,  by  some  rude  appliance,  above  them  ;  and  that  the 
whole  place  was  sheltered  by  the  hazel  bushes  which  then 
covered  the  hill,  as  they  still  cover  some  of  the  neighbouring 
eminences;  even  thus,  the  structure  would  look  extremely  unlike 
a  religious  house  of  the  present  day,  but  still,  would  be  not  less 
habitable,  perhaps,  than  many  other  places  in  which  the  monks 
and  nuns  of  that  time  passed  their  lives. 

An  alternative  object  with  which  the  Druid's  Altar  may  be 
identified,  is  the  sepulchre  in  which  the  remains  of  Eoghan  Bel 
were  interred,  after  their  removal  from  Rath  O'bh-Fiachrach. 
This  sepulchre,  as  the  life  of  St.  Ceallach  states,  lay  on  the  north 
side  of  the  river  Sligo,  at  Aonach  Loch  Gile,  the  exact  position 
of  the  monument  in  question.  We  shall  get  a  better  idea  of 
the  circumstances  of  this  singular  interment,  or  re-interment, 
by  recalling  the  words  of  the  saint's  life,  which  are  as  follows  : — 
"Eoghan  told  them  to  bury  himself  with  his  red  javelin  in  his 
hand  in  the  grave.  'Place  my  face  towards  the  north,  on  the 
side  of  the  hill  by  which  the  northerns  pass  when  flying  before 
the  army  of  Connaught ;  let  my  grave  face  them,  and  place  me 
in  it  after  this  manner.'  And  this  order  was  strictly  complied 
with  ;  and  in  every  place  where  the  Clanna  Neil  and  the 
Connacians  met  in  conflict,  the  Clanna  Neil  and  the  northerns 
were  routed,  being  panic-stricken  by  the  countenances  of  their 
foes;  so  that  the  Clanna  Neil  and  the  people  of  the  north  of 
Ireland  therefore  resolved  to  come  with  a  numerous  host  to 
Rath  O'bh-Fiachrach,  and  raise  the  body  of  Eoghan  from  the 
grave,  and  carry  it  northwards  across  the  Sligo.  This  was  done, 
and  the  body  was  buried  at  the  other  side  of  the  river,  at  Aenach, 
Locha  Gile,  with  the  mouth  down,  that  it  might  not  be  the 
means  of  causing  them  to  fly  before  the  Connacians."* 

This  little  history  proves,  that  there  was  a  public  cemetery  in 

*  Life  of  St.  Ceallach  of  Kilmore  Moy,  as  quoted  and  translated  by  O'Donovan 
in  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy-Fiachracb,  p.  472. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  471 


some  part  of  Armagh  or  Calry ;  and  while  there  is  no  trace  of 
such  a  thing  in  any  other  part  of  the  parish,  the  burying  place 
of  Clogher,  which  dates  from  time  immemorial,  and  "  the  several 
round  tumuli  on  a  neighbouring  eminence,  looking  like  the 
burying  place  of  the  castellani,"*  would  go  to  show  that  this 
was  the  sepulchral  district  in  question — and  therefore,  the  place 
in  which  the  remains  of  Eoghan  Bel  were  deposited,  if  they 
ever  were  removed,  as  is  asserted,  from  their  first  resting  place 
in  Coolerra. 

As  games  or  sports  of  various  kinds  must  have  had  a  large 
place  at  the  fairs  or  meetings  of  Annagh,  as  they  had  at  other 
similar  meetings  elsewhere,  it  is  probable  that  the  Druid's 
Altar,  assuming  it  to  be  the  burying  place  of  Eoghan  Bel,  had 
some  connexion  with  these  games.  Nor  would  its  sepulchral 
character  be  any  obstacle  to  this,  but  quite  the  contrary,  for 
cemeteries  were  the  chief  scenes  of  such  sports.  "  Aenachs  or 
fairs,"  says  Mr.  Sullivan,  in  his  learned  introduction  to  O'Curry's 
Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish  (p.  cclv.),  "appear 
to  have  originated  in  funeral  games,  celebrated  in  honour  of 
some  distinguished  chief  or  warrior,  and  in  pagan,  and  even  in 
early  Christian  times,  were  always  celebrated  in  cemeteries." 

If  it  be  asked  which  of  the  two  objects  mentioned — the  church 
of  the  Saints  and  the  sepulchre  of  Eoghan  Bel — has  the  stronger 
claim  to  be  identified  with  the  Druid's  Altar,  there  need  be  little 
hesitation  in  regard  to  the  answer  to  be  given.  The  site  of  the 
Druid's  Altar  is  all  a  solid  limestone  quarry,  and  bears  no  trace 
of  a  grave,  and  especially  no  trace  of  a  grave  deep  enough  for 
Eoghan  Bel,  whom  those  who  are  said  to  have  removed  him 
would  wish  to  place  as  far  beyond  reach  as  possible.  If  the 
Connaught  King,  then,  were  ever  removed  from  Knocknarea, 
and  reinterred  in  any  part  of  the  Deerpark,  it  would  be  in  the  L 
shaped  trench  of  the  cash  el,  which  was  an  exceptionally  strong 
structure  of  the  kind. 

But  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  all  this  talk  about  removal 
was  mere  pretence,  made  use  of  for  the  purpose  of  disheartening 

*  Rude  Stone  Monuments. — .By  Sir  James  Ferguson,  p.  235. 


472  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


the  Connaughtmen,  by  making  them  believe  that  their  palladium 
was  gone,  though  it  continued  all  the  time  undisturbed  within 
its  colossal  cairn  on  the  top  of  Knocknarea.  Dr.  Petrie,  in  his 
day,  was  anxious  to  explore  this  cairn  ;  and  it  is  a  pity  that  he, 
or  somebody  else,  did  not  do  so  ;  for  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt, 
that  if  the  centre  of  the  pile  were  reached,  light  would  be  shed 
on  the  fate  of  Eoghan  Bel,  and  on  other  interesting  points  of 
Sligo  history.  It  is  not  still  too  late  to  carry  out  Pe trie's  project 
if  the  requisite  spirit  be  forthcoming. 

As  to  the  church  or  nunnery  theory,  it  is  not  a  little  striking 
that  the  ablest  of  the  antiquaries,  who  visit  the  Druid's  Altar, 
find  a  strong  resemblance  between  its  parts  and  those  of  a 
Christian  temple.  The  late  Mr.  Hardman,  in  a  paper  read  in 
1879,  before  the  Royal  Historical  and  Archaeological  Association 
of  Ireland,  observes  on  this  point : — "  It  is  curious  to  observe 
the  general  resemblance  of  the  plan  of  this  structure  to  that  of 
a  modern  church  or  cathedral.  The  eastern  end  represents  the 
chancel.  The  central  space,  the  portion  under  the  dome,  while 
the  eastern  extremity  is  not  without  analogy  to  the  nave,  with 
side  aisles.  The  bearing  also,  is  nearly  east  and  west."  And 
Sir  James  Ferguson,  in  "Rude  Stone  Monuments"  (p.  235), 
remarks: — "  What,  then,  is  this  edifice?  It  can  hardly  be  a 
tomb,  it  is  so  unlike  any  other  tomb  which  we  know  of.  In  plan 
it  looks  like  a  temple ;  indeed,  it  is  not  unlike  the  arrangement 
of  some  Christian  churches."  Joining  these  opinions  with  the 
fact  that  Muadhnata  and  her  sisters  had  a  joint  religious  estab- 
lishment of  some  kind  on  the  hill,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  church  theory  is  not  without  some  probability.  Still  it 
is  hard  to  understand  how  the  saints  could  have  lived  there, 
and,  particularly,  how  they  could  have  psssed  through  the 
trilithon  opes  from  one  apartment  to  the  other,  as  they  must 
have  done  habitually,  if  they  occupied  the  place. 

Even  admitting  then  that  Muadhnata,  Osnata,  and  Tallula,  had 
an  establishment  on  Deerpark  hill,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  should 
be  identified  with  the  Druid's  Altar.  This  may  have  been  an 
entirely  new  erection,  put  up  after  the  sisters  or  their  successors  had 


HISTORY   OF  SL1GO.  473 


moved  their  house  down  the  hill  to  the  spot  where  the  ruined 
church  of  Clogher  now  stands.  Or,  if  not  an  entirely  new  erection, 
it  may  have  undergone  substantial  alterations  to  fit  it  for  the 
purposes  of  the  games  which  used  to  come  off  in  the  district, 
which,  the  writer  ventures  to  think,  was  its  real  destination. 

For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  place  was  famous  for  its 
public  meetings  and  games.  This  appears,  first,  from  the  name 
Aonagh  or  Annagh — a  place  of  meeting;  second,  from  the 
stanza  of  Giolla  losa  Mor  Mac  Firbis's  poem  already  quoted  . 
and,  thirdly,  from  the  following  lines  of  Shane  O'Dugan's  Topo- 
graphical Poem  ; — 

"  Clar  cluithe,  raon  na  radare, 
O'Maolcluiche  a  ceann  adart." 

"  Plain  of  the  game,  tract  of  the  prospects, 
O'Maolcluiche  is  their  head  leader." 

By-the-bye,  the  name,  O'Maolcluiche,  must  have  come  from 
these  games,  for  it  signifies  juvenis  ludi,  that  is,  the  youth  of 
the  game. 

But  what  special  purpose  did  the  structure  serve?  Most 
probably  as  an  arena  for  the  combat  of  animals,  such  as 
dogs  and  wild  boars,  dogs  and  wolves,  or  dogs  and  badgers — the 
so-called  nave  being  the  arena  proper,  and  the  aisles  inclosures 
for  the  dogs  and  the  animals  with  which  they  were  to  contend. 

The  details  of  the  structure  would  harmonize  with  this  destina- 
tion— the  aisles  at  one  end,  being  for  the  dogs,  that  at  the  other 
for  the  wild  beasts,  and  the  central  space  for  the  actual  conflict 
of  which  the  spectators,  massed  round  the  exterior  of  the  build- 
ing, would  have  a  good  view.  In  this  supposition,  the  trilithon 
opes,  which,  from  their  lowness,  could  hardly  be  meant  for  the 
passage  of  men  or  women,  would  answer  perfectly  for  the 
passage  of  the  dogs  and  other  animals,  while  the  narrow  pass 
between  the  two  little  apartments  of  the  east  end,  would  be 
intended  for  the  use  of  the  caretaker  of  these  animals.  Some 
confirmation  of  the  view  now  advanced  may  be  drawn  from  the 
old  Irish  name  of  the  place,  which  is  Maghereconrosse,  and  which 
signifies  the  Plain  of  the  Dog  of  the  wood,  a  designation  that 


474  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


points  unmistakeably  to  some  peculiar  connection  of  dogs  with 
the  spot. 

There  is  nothing  that  would  enable  us  to  tell  the  exact  time 
at  which  this  structure  was  erected,  or  adapted  to  the  sports  of 
the  place,  though  the  quarried  flags  used  in  its  construction,  and 
the  squared  and  dressed  stones  of  the  trilithons,  would  show  it 
to  be  of  comparatively  modern  origin.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  the  sports  were  practised  as  early  as  the  eleventh 
century,  and  probably  earlier;  and  it  is  pretty  certain  that  some 
of  them  came  off  on  Lough  Calgach  at  the  foot  of  the  hill ;  for 
one  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  was  on  the  occasion  of  a  regatta 
the  fatality  occurred,  which  is  thus  mentioned  by  the  Four 
Masters  at  the  year  1067  : — "  Muireadhach  Ua  Carthaigh  was 
drowned  in  Loch  Calgaich ;  he  was  the  chief  poet  and  chief 
ollamh  of  Connaught."  As  Ua  Carthaigh  was  not  a  local  name, 
Muireadhach  must  have  come  from  some  other  region  of  the 
province,  and  there  could  hardly  be  anything  else  to  attract  him 
to  the  little  out-of-the-way  lake  of  Calgach  except  the  public 
games  celebrated  on  its  waters  and  on  its  banks.  It  may  be 
noticed,  in  passing,  that  O'Donovan,  in  a  note  in  his  edition  of 
the  Four  Masters,  marks  Lough  Calgach  as  "not  identified;  "  a 
new  proof  of  the  little  attention  he  paid  to  the  history  of 
the  county  Sligo ;  for  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  are 
familiar  with  the  name  and  situation  of  Lough  Calgach. 

Nor  is  it  known  when  the  public  games  of  Annagh  ceased. 
They  were  practised  when  Shane  Mor  O'Dugan,  who  died  in 
1372,  wrote  his  poem  ;  and  as  Giolla  losa  Mor  Mac  Firbis 
mentions  them  in  his  "  Tribes  and  Customs  of  Hy  Fiachrach," 
written  about  1417,  we  may  fairly  conclude  that  they  continued 
down  to  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  or  thereabouts. 

Though  this  solution  of  the  Deerpark  "  riddle/'  as  the  Druid's 
Altar  is  styled  by  Sir  James  Ferguson,  may  not  please  anti- 
quaries of  the  antediluvian  or  pre-historic  school,  it  seems 
to  be  the  only  one  that  has  a  particle  of  proof  in  its  support. 
Indeed,  no  solution  at  all  has  been  hitherto  offered  by  those 
who  have  written  about  this  mysterious  object,  if  we  except 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  475 


Major  Wood  Martin,  who,  in  his  History  of  Sligo,  pronounces 
it  a  "fine  example  of  a  pagan  sepulchre" — a  dictum  that 
counts  for  nothing,  as  it  is  not  backed  up  by  an  iota  of 
evidence,  and  is,  besides,  contradicted  by  archaeologists  of 
authority,  like  Sir  James  Ferguson,  and  Mr.  Hardman,  who 
maintain  that,  whatever  else  the  Druid's  Altar  may  be,  it  is 
not  a  sepulchre,  pagan  or  other.  "  It  can  hardly  be  a  tomb," 
says  Sir  James  Ferguson,  "  it  is  so  unlike  any  other  tomb  which 
we  know  of;  "  and  Mr.  Hardman  is  still  more  positive,  his  words 
being: — "  It  is  clearly  not  a  monumental  or  sepulchral  structure, 
seeing  that  the  solid  rock  occurs  within  a  foot  or  so  of  the 
surface/'  It  was  hardly  fair  of  Major  Wood  Martin,  when 
quoting  Mr.  Hardman's  description,  to  omit  this  important  state- 
ment, even  though  it  militated  against  his  own  peculiar  opinion. 

Whether  the  special  function  of  the  Druid's  Altar  was,  as 
conjectured  above,  that  of  a  rude  amphitheatre  for  the  combats 
of  dogs  and  other  animals,  or  not,  it  is,  anyhow,  highly  probable, 
if  not  quite  certain,  that,  instead  of  the  structure  being  a  non- 
descript relic  of  pre-historic  times,  it  is  all  that  remains  of  a 
fixture  of  rather  modern  origin,  connected  in  one  way  or 
another,  if  not  in  the  exact  way  suggested,  with  the  far- 
famed  sports  of  Annagh  or  Calry. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  spots  in  the  county  or  in  Ireland, 
is  said  to  lie  in  Calry,  and  to  have  been  named  in  olden  time 
Grianan  Calry.  Of  this  spot,  Thomas  O'Connor,  one  of  the 
Ordnance  Survey  letter  writers,  says,  in  a  letter  written  from 
Ballina,  and  dated  September  20th,  1836  :— "  There  is  an  old 
saying  among  the  people,  which  runs  thus — 

"  Connaught  is  the  grianan  of  Ireland  ; 
Carbury  the  grianan  of  Connaught. 
Calry  is  the  grianan  of  Carbury ; 
And  the  Hill  is  the  grianan  of  Calgaich." 

It  would  be  strange  if  so  picturesque  a  place  should  fail  to  be 
recognised,  and  yet  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that  at  present  it 
"  sleeps  in  the  shade,"  though  Thomas  O'Connor,  and  Major 
Wood  Martin,  agree  in  identifying  it  with  a  little  hill  which  rises 


476  HISTORY    OF   SLIGO. 


a  couple  of  hundred  yards  to  the  south  of  the  chapel  of  Calry.  In 
the  letter  just  referred  to,  O'Connor  places  it  "  on  the  right  of  the 
road  leading  from  Sligo  to  Manorhamilton,"  the  position  of  the 
hill  in  question ;  and  in  the  History  of  Sligo,*  Major  Wood 
Martin,  horrowing  O'Connor's  words  as  well  as  his  geography, 
situates  it  to  "the  right  of  the  road  leading  from  Sligo  to 
Manorhamilton." 

Thomas  O'Connor  tries  to  bolster  up  his  identification  in 
this  wise: — "Grianan  is  interpreted  by  the  people,  a  place 
possessed  of  some  property  superior  to  other  places.  Others 
say  the  hill  was  so-called,  because  it  is  so  beautifully  green, 
etc. ;"  and  here  again  Major  Wood  Martin,  borrowing  O'Connor's 
reasons  and  words,  as  before  he  had  borrowed  his  geography 
and  words,  writes,  "  Grianan  is  interpreted  by  the  country 
people,  as  signifying  a  place  possessed  of  some  quality  or  pro- 
perty superior  to  other  localities.  Some  say  that  the  hill  was 
so-called  because  it  is  so  beautifully  green/'  etc.  Well,  all  that 
need  be  observed,  in  reference  to  these  proofs,  is,  that  the  man 
himself  must  be  " beautifully  green"  who  would  regard  them  as 
proving  anything. 

No  doubt,  O'Connor's  error,  if  it  was  not  wilful,  arose  from 
the  fact,  that  a  small  patch  of  land  at  the  south-western  base  of 
the  little  hill,  is  called  Lionan  or  Leenaun,  the  diminutive  of 
Lin  (Dr.  Joyce's  Irish  Names  of  Places,  2nd  Series,  pp.  383-4), 
because  in  winter  it  is  submerged  by  water  flowing  over  it  from 
Calgach  lake.  Leenaun  and  Greenaun  must  have  been  con- 
founded by  him  ;  and  when,  in  his  peregrinations  through  Calry, 
he  was  asking  everybody  he  met  for  Grianan  Calry,  and 
somebody,  struck  by  the  partial  resemblance  in  sound  of  Leenaun 
and  Greenaun,  pointed  out  the  hill  over  Leenaun  as  the  object 
of  his  search,  the  inquirer,  thankful  for  small  mercies,  and  glad 
to  have  something  to  tell  O'Donovan,  who  had  written  to  him, 
"Ascertain  situation  and  present  state  of  Grianan  Cairbre 
Calraigh,"  opened  his  note  book,  and  without  more  ado,  dotted 
down  Eureka. 

*  Page  92. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  477 


Whether  this  is  the  correct  explanation  of  the  matter  or  not, 
it  seems  certain  that  he  was  mistaken  about  Grianan  Calry. 
A  stone-mason  of  the  neighbourhood,  named  McDonogh,  who 
possesses  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  district,  and  who  is 
somewhat  of  an  archa3ologist  besides,  affirms,  that  he  always 
heard  the  place  spoken  of  as  Leenaun,  but  never  as  Greenaun, 
And  other  inhabitants,  including  an  intelligent  shopkeeper 
named  Hargadon,  who  was  born  and  bred  near  the  spot,  makes 
the  same  statement.  Indeed,  such  authority  is  quite  un- 
necessary ;  for  no  one  with  the  slightest  sense  of  the  beautiful 
in  scenery,  would  think  for  a  moment,  of  identifying  the  far 
famed  Grianan  Cairbre  Calry,  with  this  despicable  little  hill, 
inferior  in  outline,  in  colour,  in  every  element  of  beauty,  to  a 
hundred  other  places  scattered  up  and  down  the  parish  of 
Calry. 

What  then  has  become  of  Grianan  Calry  ?  Has  this  delight- 
ful spot,  like  the  garden  of  Eden,  disappeared  from  mortal 
vision.  This  would  be  a  great  pity  indeed,  if  it  has  any  just 
claim  to  the  superlative  praise  which  has  been  bestowed  upon 
it ;  and  it  is  therefore  pleasant  to  be  able  to  re-assure  the  lovers 
of  the  picturesque  on  the  point,  and  to  certify  them,  that  the 
incomparable  Grianan,  is  still  to  be  seen,  and  is  still  as  bright 
and  charming  as  ever. 

Turning  the  back  on  Leenaun,  and  searching  elsewhere  for 
this  Connaught  Paradise,  we  come  upon  a  region  at  the  head  of 
Lough  Gill,  which  is  certainly  the  place  in  question,  as  it 
possesses  all  the  conditions  assigned  to  it.  First,  part  of  it  has 
always  borne  the  name  of  "  Grianan,"  and  still  bears  it,  though  at 
present  without  the  addition  of  "  Calry,"  faring  in  this  respect, 
as  compound  Irish  names  usually  fare,  in  losing  some  of  the 
appellation  in  the  course  of  time.  Second,  though  it  may  not 
belong  to  the  present  parish  of  Calry,  it  lies  in  the  old  district 
of  Calry  or  Calregia,  which,  as  is  well  known,*  took  in  Drum- 
lias  and  Dromahair,  with  the  intervening  stretch,  including 

*  See  page  440. 


478  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


Grianan,  Shriff  and  the  Hill.  And  third,  it  is  of  such  surpass- 
ing loveliness,  both  in  itself  and  its  surroundings,  as  to  fully 
justify  the  extraordinary  eulogy  contained  in  the  old  Irish  lines 
quoted  and  translated  by  O'Connor. 

Greenan  Hill  stands  like  a  section  of  some  vast  earthen 
amphitheatre,  of  nature's  own  formation,  rising  in  graceful 
gradation,  tier  over  tier,  every  perch  of  the  surface  being  of  as 
brilliant  a  green,  as  the  finest  emerald  of  Peru.  What  gives 
the  hill  its  superiority,  as  a  point  of  view,  is  the  fact,  that  just 
as  in  our  great  National  Exhibitions,  the  most  striking  objects 
of  the  collection  are  placed  round  the  principal  standpoint,  so 
also  the  chief  scenic  beauties  of  the  county  are  ranged  in  their 
very  best  aspects,  round  Greenan — to  the  right  the  beautiful 
Benbulben ;  to  the  left,  the  boldest  elevation  of_Slieve- da-En, 
shooting  up  majestically  from  the  water's  edge ;  in  the  front, 
the  smooth  and  finely  outlined  Knocknarea ;  and  further  on,  the 
Ox  mountains,  carrying  away  the  thoughts  and  the  eye  to  the 
western  ocean  ;  nearer,  the  sylvan  glades  of  Holywell,  Hazel- 
wood,  and  Belvoir ;  and,  at  its  foot,  Lough  Gill,  unrolled  before 
the  eye  in  all  its  length  and  breadth — its  bright  islands  shining 
like  so  many  spangles,  set  by  nature  on  its  surface  for  its 
adornment,  and  its  waters  rippling  over  its  beach  of  shingle  with 
cadenced  sound,  as  if  to  make  its  perfections  audible  as  well  as 
visible. 

It  is  creditable  to  the  taste  of  our  ancestors,  to  have  singled 
out  this  charming  spot  for  their  special  admiration. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

PARISH   OF   DRUMCLIFF. 
THE  ROSSES,  DRUMCLIFF,   AND  CASTLETOWN. 

To  the  north  of  St.  John's  and  Calry  parishes,  lies  the  extensive, 
populous,  and  rich  parish  of  Drumcliff,  stretching  from  the  sea 
to  the  county  Leitrim,  with  an  area  of  26,598  acres,  a  population 
of  6,898  souls  in  1881,  and  a  valuation  of  £15,937  12s. 

The  ROSSES  in  this  district,  are  a  strip  of  land,  about  three 
miles  long  and  one  wide,  lying  between  the  Sligo  and  Drum- 
cliff  estuaries,  and  running  westwards  on  to  the  sea.  At  their 
western  end  they  have  the  form  of  a  horse-shoe,  the  toe  turned 
inland,  the  sides  projecting  into  the  sea,  and  the  space  within 
the  sides,  which  is  a  much  lower  level,  forming  the  famous 
and  commodious  race-course  of  Bomore,  where  the  horses  are 
under  the  eye  of  the  spectator,  from  the  start  to  the  finish. 
They  are  divided  into  the  Lower  or  Northern  Rosses,  and  the 
Upper  or  Southern ;  the  latter  being  a  beautiful  and  fashionable 
sea-side  resort. 

Though  this  watering-place  is  popular  at  present,  it  is  sure  to 
be  much  more  frequented  when  better  known,  as  its  attractions 
are  superior  to  those  of  most  places  of  the  kind  in  Ireland. 
Lying  along  the  sunny  southern  slope  of  a  gently  rising  ridge  of 
green  land ;  looking  down  on  the  picturesque  and  historical 
Oyster  and  Coney  islands,  swimming  at  its  feet ;  commanding  a 
clear  view  of  almost  every  perch  of  the  curving,  converging, 
well  defined,  richly  cultivated,  and  highly  varied  shores  of  Sligo 
harbour,  as  well  as  of  the  extensive  crescent  of  striking  build- 
ings— stretching  from  the  Lunatic  Asylum,  in  the  east,  to  the 
Cathedral,  in  the  west — which  the  town  forms,  when  looked  at 
from  this  point ;  in  full  view  of  some  of  the  finest  mountain 


480  HTSTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


scenery  of  Leitrim,  Mayo,  and  Sligo,  ranging  round  from 
Slieve-an-Ierin,  in  the  east,  to  Kilcummin  Head,  in  the  west  ; 
surrounded  on  all  sides  with  beautiful  walks — the  esplanade 
between  the  village  and  the  Pool ;  the  beaches  of  Bomore  and 
Lower  Rosses,  long  enough  to  satisfy  the  most  indefatigable 
pedestrian;  and  the  extensive  Green,  as  the  summit  of  the 
plateau  is  called — where  the  dryness  at  all  times,  and  springiness, 
of  the  turf  under  the  foot,  the  balminess  of  the  air,  and  the 
lively  and  varied  movements  of  the  promenaders  and  saunterers, 
child  and  adult,  cannot  fail  to  interest  and  entertain,  while  the 
eye  feasts  on  the  beauty  of  the  landscape,  and  the  lungs  are  in- 
vigorated with  the  ozone  of  the  Atlantic ;  these  and  a  hundred 
other  advantages,  which  might  be  named,  when  coupled  with 
the  safest  and  pleasantest  sea-bathing  in  Ireland,  must  always 
commend  the  Rosses  Point,  alike  to  the  lover  of  the  pictur- 
esque and  the  votary  of  health. 

Should  drives  be  desired,  there  is  no  neighbourhood  in  the 
county  which  supplies  more,  or  more  beautiful  ones,  such  as  the 
valley  of  Glencar,  superior  to  anything  in  Wicklow  or  Kerry ; 
the  romantic  region  near  the  Heels — as  they  are  locally  called 
— of  Benbulben,  and  Benweeskin  ;  and  the  noble  demesne  of 
Lissadell,  with  its  magnificent  mansion,  its  charming  glen,  and 
its  stirring  historical  associations.  If  a  trip  on  water  be 
fancied,  a  row  or  a  sail  to  Knocknarea,  Ardtermon,  Innismurray, 
or  the  coast  of  Tireragh,  cannot  fail  to  gratify  ;  while  those  who 
wish  to  enjoy  sea  air  and  society  together,  have  only  to  take  a 
seat  in  the  river  steamer,  or  the  road  char  a  banes,  in  any  of  the 
several  trips,  which  each  of  those  gay  conveyances  makes  every 
day,  when  they  will  find  themselves  in  the  midst  of  the  fashion- 
ables of  Sligo. 

And  every  new  day  brings  some  fresh  novelty  to  sojourners 
at  Rosses  Point.  One  day  it  is  a  contest  at  cricket,  in  which 
the  leading  athletes  of  the  county,  with,  occasionally,  some  from 
the  neighbouring  counties,  exhibit  all  their  agility,  dexterity, 
nerve,  and  prowess;  next  day  it  is  a  match  of  lawn  tennis, 
when  the  great  object  of  those  engaged  in  this  Dolce  far  niente 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  481 


pastime,  is  to  outshine  others  in  gracefulness  of  movement,  and 
fashionableness  of  costume.  Here,  it  is  the  Sligo  Militia,  at 
cannon  practice,  and  apparently  at  war  with  the  incoming 
waves,  on  which  they  fire,  but  with  little  success,  as  to  making 
the  enemy  fall  back ;  and  there,  it  is  a  body  of  the  Royal  Irish 
police,  going  through  military  evolutions,  and  displaying  in 
their  movements,  as  well  as  in  their  handsome,  manly,  and 
martial  forms,  those  qualities  and  attributes  which  have 
earned  for  them  the  reputation  of  being  the  finest  body  of 
military,  or  quasi-military  men  in  Europe;  while  on  the 
summit  of  the  Green,  may  often  be  seen  the  coast-guards  of 
Rosses  Point,  signalling  by  mirrors  to  the  coast-guards  of 
Raghly,  who  flash  back  in  turn,  question  and  answer — this 
strange  correspondence  often  drawing  from  some  of  the  gaping 
simpletons,  who  witness  it,  remarks  and  exclamations  hardly 
less  entertaining,  than  the  manipulation  of  the  mirrors. 

Each  of  these  attractions  brings  numbers  of  the  curious  from 
Sligo  and  elsewhere ;  and  if  other  inducements  in  the  form  of 
regattas,  horse  races,  fire-works,  or  band  music,  were  provided 
on  as  liberal  a  scale,  as  they  are  provided  in  other  quarters,  the 
Point  would  soon  become  as  fashionable,  as  it  is  a  healthful 
watering  place. 

The  interior  of  this  tract,  with  the  exception  of  Bomore,  is 
uneven  and  rugged,  broken  up  into  small  rath-like  mounds  or 
hillocks,  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high  ;  the  surface  of  the 
sides  and  summits  being,  in  great  part,  naked  rock.  Taking 
advantage  of  the  configuration  of  the  land,  people  in  remote 
times  turned  the  mounds  into  formidable  fortifications,  by 
rearing  round  them,  and  on  them  circles  of  large  stones,  many 
of  which  still  remain  in  situ.  One  of  these  elevations,  which  is 
called  Liscorrach,  and  is  twenty-three  yards  in  diameter,  had  a 
cave  excavated  in  the  centre,  and  a  ring  of  sand  stones  round 
the  top;  while  another,  which  goes  by  the  name  of  Doone- 
meelin,  owes  much  more  to  art  than  the  rest,  as  it  is  coated 
all  round,  and  on  the  top,  with  earth  and  sods,  and  is  surrounded 
at  the  base  with  a  deep  ditch,  as  well  as  surmounted  with  a 
VOL.  I.  2  H 


482  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 

parapet,  which  served  as  an  inclosure  and  defence  for  the  sum- 
mit. In  the  southern  half  of  the  space  within  the  parapet,  are 
the  remains  of  another  inclosure,  which  was  of  an  oblong  form, 
and  which  manifestly  encompassed  two  or  three  small  structures 
of  some  kind,  the  foundation  stones  of  which  may  still  he 
seen.  The  whole  was  probably  an  ecclesiastical  establishment, 
and  the  small  buildings  may  have  been  those  beehive  shaped 
cells,  that  are  sometimes  found  in  such  places ;  though  local 
gossip  connects  Doonemeelin  with  the  Danes,  and  tells  a  long 
story  about  how  it  was  once  given  with  an  Irish  maiden,  as  a 
marriage  portion,  to  a  sea  rover  from  Denmark. 

Frequent  mention  of  the  Rosses  occurs  in  the  annals  of 
Ireland.  Under  the  year  3790,  the  Four  Masters  record  the 
eruption  of  the  sea,  between  Eabha  and  Ros-Cette,  from  which 
we  may  infer,  that  previously  to  that  date,  the  Rosses  formed 
part  of  Magherow,  or  the  Plain  of  Eabha.  Geologists  will  be 
inclined  to  demur  to  the  statement  of  the  Four  Masters,  and  to 
refer  the  "eruption,"  or,  speaking  more  correctly,  the  irruption, 
to  geological,  rather  than  to  historical  time ;  but  the  changes 
which  have  taken  place  on  this  coast,  even  within  the  last 
century,  lend  great  probability  to  the  assertions  of  the  Annal- 
ists. 

About  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  village  in  which  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Lower  Rosses  lived,  stood  on  the  strand  which  is  now 
regularly  covered  with,  the  sea,  at  the  flow  of  the  tide ;  much 
later  still,  the  channel  in  front  of  Lissadell  was  so  narrow,  that, 
to  use  the  quaint  expression  of  an  old  inhabitant  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood, a  man  might  throw  a  riddle  across  it ;  and,  twenty 
or  thirty  years  back,  boats  bringing  in  rack  to  Lower  Rosses, 
had  to  wait  near  Raghley  for  the  rise  of  the  tide,  to  get  over  a 
ridge  orfearsat  that  ran  from  there  to  John's  Port,  where  now 
sailing  boats  of  considerable  draught  can  move  freely  about  at 
all  times.  Whoever,  bearing  these  facts  in  mind,  and  looking 
seaward,  when  the  tide  is  well  out,  observes  the  scene  before 
him — to  the  left  a  low  ledge  of  rock,  running  from  Coney 
Island  to  the  lighthouse,  and  to  the  right,  a  ridge  of  sand,  no 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  483 


doubt,  covering  rock,  "stretching  almost  the  whole  way  from 
Lower  Rosses  to  Raghley,  will  get  a  good  idea  of  the  rapid  inroads 
which  the  sea  is  making  on  this  coast,  and  will  find  it  easier  to 
accept,  than  to  reject,  the  account  of  the  Four  Masters. 

In  the  Yita  Tripartita  of  St.  Patrick,  by  Colgau,  we  read 
that  the  saint  visited  the  Rosses,  when  removing  from  Connaught 
to  Ulster,  passing  through  them  on  his  way  from  Killaspug- 
brone  to  Magh  Cedne.*  It  is  not  recorded  that  he  erected  a 
church  in  the  district,  but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  did  so,  as 
there  are  some  traditions  in  the  place  of  a  primitive  church, 
which  St.  Columba  frequented  when  a  little  boy,  and  which  may 
fairly  be  supposed  to  have  been  built  by  Saint  Patrick.  Nor 
is  there  any  proof  that  Columba  himself  built  any  of  his 
churches  in  the  Rosses,  for,  though  his  name  is  mingled  largely 
with  the  gossiping  traditions  of  the  inhabitants,  the  stories  told, 
from  their  nature,  must  be  of  modern  origin,  and  arose,  appar- 
ently, from  the  saint's  well  known  connexion  with  the 
neighbouring  district  of  Drumcliff. 

One  of  these  stories  is,  that  he  lived  in  the  place  as  a 
poor  scholar ;  and  that  while  others  turned  the  back  upon 
him,  a  lad  named  Killerlean  took  him  home,  and  treated 
him  hospitably.  To  repay  the  kindness,  Columba,  when 
quitting  the  school,  left  Killerlean  an  old  shoe,  with  a 
promise,  that  while  the  Killerleans  kept  it,  they  would 
never  want  money,  and  would,  besides,  be  able  to  cure  several 
specified  diseases  of  cattle.  The  shoe,  it  is  said,  remained  for 
long  an  heir-loom  in  the  family,  bringing  them  all  sorts  of  good 
luck ;  but  having  been  lent  to  a  "man  of  the  North,"  who  had  cattle 
sick,  it  was  never  returned,  thus,  unfortunately,  leaving  the 
Killerleans  of  the  Rosses,  as  poor  as  their  neighbours.  How 
this  story  arose,  it  is  left  to  others  to  investigate ;  but,  most 
probably  it  was  concocted  to  popularize  some  alleged  cattle  cure. 

*  Trias  Thaumaturga,  Vita  Tripartita,  S.  Patricii,  page  143 -.—"Patrick 
went  afterwards  past  Drumcliffe,  from  Caisel-Irra,  by  the  Rosses  eastwards 
along  Magh-Enni,  and  founded  Domhnach-mor  of  Magh-Enni." — Hennessy's 
Translation  of  the  Tripartite  Life  of  St.  Patrick,  p.  432. 


484  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 

Cattle  cures,  however,  did  not  cease  in  the  Rosses  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  shoe.  What  this  talisman  did  in  the  past 

is  now  effected  hy  the  Elf-stones.  A  nomme  A of  Lower 

Rosses  is  the  owner  or  guardian  of  these,  to  him,  precious  stones, 
which  are  warranted  to  cure  all  elf-shot  [cattle ;  and  elf-shot 
cattle,  according  to  the  large  local  interpretation,  are  cattle 
suffering  from  any  disease  whatever. 

Happening  one  day  to  be  on  the  hill  of  Upper  Rosses,  and 
seeing  a  lad  with  a  bottle  in  one  hand,  and  a  small  parcel  in  the 
other,  coming  in  haste  from  the  Lower  Rosses,  the  writer  asked 
him  what  he  had  with  him,  and  was  told  it  was  the  Elf-stones. 
Asking  to  see  them,  the  lad,  half  reluctantly,  handed  over  the 
parcel  which, being  opened,  wasfound  to  contain  eight  smallstones 
— one  of  quartz,  of  about  five  ounces  weight ;  another  of  quartz, 
of  about  three  ounces  ;  one  of  silica,  of  an  ounce  and  a  half; 
and  five  more,  which  seemed  chips  of  different  kinds  of  sand- 
stone— all  tied  up  in  a  rag.  The  bottle,  the  lad  said,  contained 
water  of  three  mearings,  that  is,  water  taken  out  of  a  pool, 
where  the  mearings  of  three  tenants'  holdings  meet.  Before 
application,  the  stones  with  sixpence  in  silver,  and  two  pence  in 
copper,  were  to  be  thrown  into  a  jug  and  covered  with  the  water 
of  the  bottle ;  and  after  this  mysterious  operation,  three  drops  of 
the  liquid  were  to  be  administered  internally  to  the  sick  animal, 
when  the  rest  should  be  applied  with  friction  externally,  be- 
ginning at  the  tail,  traversing  both  sides  of  the  back  bone,  and 
finishing  with  the  roots  of  the  horns.  It  is  well  to  add,  though 
it  may  serve  as  a  testimonial  for  the  crafty  owner  of  the  Elf- 
stones,  that  the  simple  boy,  that  carried  them  on  this  occasion 
to  the  sick  beast,  boasted  afterwards,  and  firmly  believed,  that 
the  cure  proved  efficacious  the  moment  it  was  applied. 

Church  structures  however  stood  in  the  Rosses,  whoever  were 
the  builders ;  for  one  is  shown  on  the  Down  Survey  maps  in 
the  Upper  Rosses,  on  a  spot  belonging  at  present  to  Captain 
Gillen  ;  while  two,  now  disused,  burying  grounds  in  the  Lower 
Rosses — one,  called  Lisheen  na  paiste,  and  another,  to  the  west 
of  the  Lisheen,  were,  no  doubt,  in  the  past  attached  to  churches. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  485 


From  time  immemorial,  down  to  the  recent  disestablishment  of 
the  church  in  Ireland,  the  Rosses  were  church  land,  belonged  first, 
to  the  religious  of  Drumcliff,  but  later,  to  the  bishop  of  Elphin,  and 
were  held  under  him  by  tenants  at  an  annual  rent,  as  we  learn 
from  an  exchequer  inquisition,  sped  at  Sligo,  on  the  7th  July, 
1612,  under  John  Kinge,*in  which  inquisition  the  Upper  Rosses 
is  called  Rossibeolain,  from  the  DrumclifF  ecclesiastical  family, 
named  Beolan,  and  the  Lower  Rosses,  Rosse  McAnerleyne,  the 
original,  probably,  of  the  name  Killerlean,  common  still  in  the 
place. 

The  "striping,"  as  it  is  called,  of  the  Rosses,  including  Gregg, 
which  divided  the  district  into  the  existing  holdings,  took  place 
about  1860,  and  against  the  will  of  nearly  all  the  tenants.  Two 
men,  named  Barber  and  Yeates,  were  the  chief  instruments 
employed  in  the  operation,  Barber  taking  the  lion's  share  of  the 
work,  and  incurring  most  of  the  odium  of  the  transaction.  Up 
to  that  time  the  people  held  in  rundale,  and  were  spoken  of  as 
One-cow  tenants,  Two-cow  tenants,  etc.,  according  to  their  right 
to  graze  one,  two,  or  more  cows.  It  was  pretended  by  the 
"  stripers  "  that  the  new  holdings  would  be  made  out  on  the 
principle  of  giving  to  each  tenant  a  quantity  of  land  proportion- 
able to  his  former  grazing  right ;  but,  instead  of  acting  on  this 
equitable  principle,  the  managers,  if  we  are  to  believe  what 
everyone  in  the  Rosses  says,  so  handled  the  matter  as  to  help 
their  favourites  at  the  expense  of  all  others.  The  stripes  being 
arranged,  the  poor  people  had  to  take  what  they  got ;  and  to  add 
to  the  evil,  while  the  land  they  received  was  less  than  it  ought 
to  be,  their  rents  were  enormousl}7  increased. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  injustice  they  had  to  put  up  with. 
Before  the  striping,  Bomore,  and  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Green,  were  a  common,  on  which  all  the  tenants  bad  a  prescrip- 
tive right  to  pasture  cattle  free  ;  but  they  were  now  tricked  out 
of  this  ;  for  Barber  and  Co.,  professing  a  desire  to  serve  them  by 
planting  bent  along  the  sea  to  keep  off  the  blowing  sand,  and 

*  Sligo  Inquisitions. — Inquisitio  15a. 


486  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


pretending  they  could  not  do  this  without  receiving  possession 
of  the  land  from  the  tenants,  asked  the  possession,  giving  at  the 
same  time  an  assurance  that  the  people  would  get  the  grass 
again  at  a  nominal  rent.  The  simpletons  gave  what  was  asked, 
but  found,  when  too  late,  that  they  were  juggled  out  of  their 
rights,  and  that  the  new  charges  for  grazing  were  up  to  the  full 
value  of  the  land. 

The  Rosses  were  purchased  in  1867  by  the  late  Mr.  William 
Middleton,  from  the  Misses  Cooper,  the  purchase  money  being 
£17,500.  Under  its  new  owners  the  place  has  greatly 
prospered,  about  £2,500  having  been  expended  by  Mr.  Middle- 
ton  and  his  family  in  improvements.  Between  the  substantial 
and  commodious  lodges  built  by  Mr.  Middleton  himself,  those 
put  up  by  others,  to  whom  he  granted  building  leases,  the  hotels 
and  shops  that  have  been  erected,  and  the  many  houses  that 
have  been  recently  enlarged  and  otherwise  improved,  Rosses 
Point  has  now  ample  and  suitable  accommodation  for  all  classes 
of  sea-side  visitors. 

The  place  is  daily  extending ;  and  remembering  that, 
in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  there  was  not  a  single 
house  on  the  site  of  the  village,  there  is  good  ground  for 
thinking  that  it  is  destined  to  be  soon  much  larger  and  more 
important  than  it  is,  so  as  to  hold,  in  regard  to  Sligo,  the  same 
relation  that  Kingstown  does  in  regard  to  Dublin.  In  the  past 
the  absence  of  places  of  worship  and  schools  interfered  very  much 
with  its  progress,  but  this  want  is  now  well  supplied  by  the  neat 
little  Gothic  church  and  schools  of  the  Protestants,  and  the 
beautiful  church  and  schools  erected,  in  1878-9,  by  the  indefati- 
gable Father  Moraghan,  for  the  Catholic  inhabitants  and  visitors. 
With  all  these  advantages — natural,  social,  and  religious — the 
future  of  Rosses  Point  is  assured. 

The  Rosses  property  comprises  642  acres,  2  roods,  6  perches, 
Irish  measure,  and  was,  every  foot  of  it,  church  land.  The 
details  are  given  in  what  is  called  "A  Map  of  the  twelve 
cartrons  of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Rosses  and  Creggiconnell,  in 
the  barony  of  Carbury,  and  county  of  Sligo,  being  part  of  the  See 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  487 


lands  of  Elphin,  in  lease  to  Mrs.  Cooper,  surveyed  anno  1721, 
per  Garrett  Hogan,"  and  are  as  follows : — 

A.      R.    P. 

Upper  and  Lower  Rosses  and  Creggiconnell— arable  456    0    0 

Island— arable       -  406 

Eocky  Pasture      *  45    0    0 

Land  overblown  with  sand  93    0     0 

Sand  Banks  19     2    0 

Doonierin  £  Cartron— arable        -  25    0    0 

Total        642    2    6 
[Exclusive  of  9  acres  of  bog.] 

There  is  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  name, 
DRUMCLIFF.  Some  will  have  it,  that  it  means  the  ridge  of  the 
mountain,  not  because  it  is  mountainous  in  itself,  but  because  it 
is  at  the  back  of  the  mountain — an  explanation  which  savours 
too  much  of  the  "  lucus  a  non  lucendo  "  school  of  etymology. 
Drumcliff,  ridge  of  the  chest,  as  others  say,  from  some  resem- 
blance between  its  physical  outline  and  that  of  the  human  trunk. 
The  Dinnseanchus  derives  it  from  a  fleet  of  150  wicker  work  curachs 
(cliabh  cureich)  prepared  there  in  pre-historic  times  for  the 
siege  of  D unbare,  a  fortress  which  Thomas  O'Connor,  in  one  of 
the  Ordnance  Survey  Letters,*  locates  in  the  Rosses,  though, 
on  inquiry,  we  find  it  has  neither  a  "  local  habitation,  nor  a 
name,"  in  that  district ;  but  the  Dinnseanchus  is  as  fanciful  in 
this  as  it  is  in  many  other  of  its  derivations.  "While  still  taking 
cliabh  (basket,  cage,  hamper,)  for  the  root  of  the  name,  others 
make  other  applications — one,  that  the  place  was  so  called  from 
its  abounding  in  hazel,  the  material  of  wicker-work ;  another, 
from  its  being  strewed  with  specimens  of  the  manufactured 
work,  such  as  fishing  baskets,  hampers,  panniers  for  beasts  of 

*  In  his  letter  Mr.  O'Connor  writes,  "  Drumcliff  took  its  name,  it  is  stated  in 
the  Dinnseanchus,  from  150  wicker  boats  (cliabh  curach,)  which  Curnan  Cos 
dubh  fitted  out  there  for  the  purpose  of  plundering  Dun-bare,  then  in  the 
possession  of  Ainnle,  the  son  of  Luighaid  of  the  Long  Hands.  He  continued 
the  siege  for  a  year  and  a  half,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  he  succeeded  in 
razing  the  fort.  Dunbarc  is  still  in  existence,  at  least,  as  to  name,  it  lies  in  the 
Rosses  in  Carbury." — Letter  Book  of  Ordnance  Survey  for  county  Sligo,  p.  394. 


488  HISTORY   OF  SLIGO. 


burden ;  and  a  third,  from  its  being  covered,  after  the  erection 
of  the  monastery,  with  wicker-work  cells  for  the  monks:  an 
account  of  the  matter  which  gains  considerable  probability  from 
the  analogy  of  the  neighbouring  Drumlias,  so  called,  as  expressly 
stated  in  the  Vita  Tripartita,*  from  being  studded  with  the  huts 
of  the  religious. 

Lying  between  Glencar  and  the  bay,  and  flanked  on  either 
side  with  noble  mountains,  the  surroundings  of  Drumcliff  are 
picturesque.  It  would  be  impossible  to  find,  in  Ireland,  a  more 
charming  spot  than  GLENCAR,  of  which  Drumcliff  maybe  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  prolongation.  This  valley,  which  runs  from  east  to 
west,  between  the  parallel  mountain  ranges  of  Slieve  Carbury  to 
the  north,  and  Castlegal,  or  Slieve-gan-baistead  to  the  south,  is 
about  three  miles  in  length,  and  about  one  mile  in  breadth, 
being  straight  and  symmetrical  from  end  to  end.  Receiving  the 
rays  of  the  morning  and  of  the  evening  sun  in  their  direct  flow, 
and  those  of  the  hot  and  glaring  noonday,  after  having  been  agree- 
ably mellowed  by  their  passage  over  the  depressions  and  through 
the  peaks  of  the  southern  range,  Glencar  is  admirably  lighted  and 
heated  throughout  the  entire  day,  unlike  too  many  glens,  which, 
from  having  bends  or  projections  that  obstruct  the  light,  and 
from  having  too  much  depth  for  their  width,  are  at  once  sombre 
and  cold,  so  as,  at  the  same  time,  to  depress  the  mind  and  chill 
the  body.  As  the  setting  sun  of  the  summer  and  autumn 
months  floods,  with  its  gorgeous  beams,  this  charming  valley — 
lighting  up  its  sides  and  bringing  out  the  varied  vegetation 
with  which  they  are  clothed — the  singularly  green  grasses  near 
the  base ;  the  stately  ferns  that  lift  their  graceful  forms  on  every 
ledge  and  in  every  recess ;  the  many  indigenous  shrubs  adorned 
with  variously  tinted  blossoms  that  gladden  the  eye ;  the  rich, 
glowing,  purple  of  the  heath,  which  covers,  as  with  a  canopy, 
the  summits  of  the  sides ;  and  the  luxuriant  young  planta- 
tions, with  which  skilled  hands  have  supplemented  the  work 
of  Nature,  wherever  there  was  room  for  such  an  addition  ; 

*  Trias  Thaumaturga,  143. — Drumlias  "nuncupatum  a  multitudine  casarum 
et  cedicularum." 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  489 


with  such  surroundings,  you  forget  that  you  are  near  the 
"  melancholy  ocean,"  and  fancy  yourself  away  in  some  southern 
clime,  with,  however,  this  important  difference,  that  there  you 
would  have  to  guard  yourself  from  insects  and  reptiles,  while 
here  you  may  give  yourself  up  to  the  tranquil  enjoyment  of  the 
scene,  untroubled  by  the  thought  of  annoyance  or  danger: — 

"  At  rabidae  tigres  absunt,  et  sseva  leonum 
Semina  ;  nee  miseros  fallunt  aconita  legentes ; 
Nee  rapit  immensos  orbes  per  humum,  neque  tanto 
Squameus  in  spiram  tractu  se  colligit  anguis."* 

Nor  is  this  favoured  spot  without  its  peculiar  advantages  in 
winter.  Protected  by  Slieve  Carbury  from  the  most  piercing 
of  the  winds,  the  temperature  is  sufficiently  genial,  even  at 
times  when  the  weather  is  insufferably  cold  elsewhere.  And, 
assuredly,  the  motions  of  that  man's  spirit  must  be  "  dull  as 
night,"  who  is  not  moved  with  the  "  concord  of  sweet  sounds  " 
that  issue  from  the  thousand  streams,  streamlets,  rills,  and 
rivulets,  which,  like  the  strings  of  a  harp,  run  down  from  the 
mountain  tops  to  the  river,  each  current,  from  the  largest  stream 
to  the  tiniest  rillet,  contributing  its  own  distinct  and  separate 
note  to  the  full  diapason,  that  thrills  upon  the  ear,  and  fills  the 
whole  valley  with  harmony. 

The  Glencar  waterfall  affords  as  much  gratification  to  the  eye 
as  to  the  ear.  At  any  time  through  the  year,  but  especially  in 
the  winter,  it  is  a  striking  sight  as  its  body  of  water  leaps  from 
ledge  to  ledge,  down  precipices  of  some  hundred  feet  high. 

As  to  the  mysterious  Sruth-an-ail-an-ard :  when  the  wind 
blows  strongly  from  the  west,  the  spectacle  is  nothing  short  of 
the  sublime,  as  the  rushing  rivulet,  having  reached  the  edge  of 
the  precipice,  instead  of  rolling  down,  in  accordance  with  the 
laws  of  gravitation,  gets  caught,  as  it  were,  in  some  great 
chemical  laboratory,  which  resolves  it  into  its  original  elements, 
and  then  projects  and  dissipates  these  elements,  in  clouds  of 
glittering  spray,  through  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmosphere. 

The  river  into  which  all  these  streamlets  discharge  themselves 

*  Virgil.— Georgica.     Lib.  II.,  Lin.  151-4. 


490  HISTOBY  OF   SLIGO. 


is,  of  itself,  and  apart  from  its  incomparable  surroundings,  of 
considerable  beauty,  and  great  historical  interest.  It  is  the 
scene  of  one  of  the  most  startling  events,  that  have  ever  occurred 
in  Carbury,  though  our  most  learned  antiquarians,  after  repeated 
attempts  to  fix  the  exact  locality  of  the  occurrence,  have  all 
failed  to  do  so.  The  event  in  question  is  recorded  in  the  Annals 
of  the  Four  Masters,  under  the  year  1029,  and  is  contained  in 
the  following  entry : — "  Hugh  O'Ruairc,  Lord  of  Dartry  ;  and 
the  Lord  of  Carbury;  and  Aengus  O'Hennessy,  airinech  of 
Drumcliff;  and  three  score  persons  along  with  them,  were 
burned  in  Innis-na-lainne,  in  Carbury  Mor."  * 

Under  this  entry,  O'Donovan,  in  his  edition  of  the  Four 
Masters,  writes  in  a  note,  "  Inis-na-lainne,  i.e.,  the  Sword 
Island.  This  was  the  name  of  an  island  off  the  coast  of  the 
barony  of  Carbury,  and  county  of  Sligo,  but  it  is  now  obsolete." 
In  this  location  our  great  topographer  is  in  error,  as  he  not 
unfrequently  is,  in  his  fancied  identification  of  other  localities 
in  the  county  Sligo. 

Inis-na-lainne  is  certainly  the  eastern  crannoge,  which,  still 
exists,  though  somewhat  diminished  in  size,  in  that  expansion  of 

*  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  A.D.  1029.  In  the  Annals  of  Tighernach  the 
entry  is,  "Great  mortality  in  the  island  of  Lana  in  Carbria  Magna."  The  event 
is  recorded  in  the  Chronicon  Scotorum  under  the  year  1027,  and  runs  thus  : — 
"A  great  loss  of  life  in  Inis-na-lainne  in  Cairbre-mor,  in  which  were  burned 
twelve  score  men  of  the  nobles  of  Cairbre,  and  the  King  of  Dartraighe,  and  the 
King  of  Cairbre,  and  the  airchinnech  of  Drnmcliff."  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
Four  Masters  and  the  Chronicon  Scotorum  differ  as  to  the  number  lost— the 
former  making  it  three  score,  and  the  latter  twelve  score. 

It  is  not  said  whether  it  was  by  accident  or  design  this  calamity  was  brought 
about.  A  similar  conflagration  was  caused  in  the  following  century  by  lightning 
in  Rock  Island,  Loch  Ce :— "  The  Rock  of  Loch  Ce  was  burned  by 
lightning.  Duvesa,  daughter  of  O'Heyne,  and  wife  of  Conor  Mac  Dermot,  Lord 
of  Moylurg,  with  seven  hundred  (or  seven  score)  others  or  more,  both  men  and 
women,  were  drowned  or  burned  in  it  in  the  course  of  one  hour." — Annals  of 
the  Four  Masters,  A.D.  1187. 

From  the  smallness  of  Rock  Island  it  was  impossible  to  escape  once  the  place 
was  on  fire ;  and  it  was,  no  doubt,  from  a  similar  cause— the  crannage  being 
immediately  surrounded  on  all  sides  with  water— that  the  conflagration  of  Inis- 
na-lainne  proved  so  fatal.  And  this  consideration  shows  that  the  occurrence  of 
1029  could  not  have  happened  in  any  of  the  islands  off  the  coast,  as  there  would 
have  been  ample  room  to  fly  to  for  safety  even  in  the  smallest  of  them. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  491 


Glencar  river,  which  is  now  called  Glencar  Lake,  or  Lough-na- 
Glena ;  and  this  is  proved  by  the  words  of  the  Four  Masters ; 
by  the  peculiar  situation  of  the  crannoge ;  and  by  a  decisive 
passage  of  the  Book  of  Fenagh. 

And,  first,  as  the  words  of  the  annalists  are  not  "  Near  Carbury 
Mor,"  or  "  off  the  coast  of  Carbury  Mor,"  but  "In  Carbury 
Mor,"  they  indicate  an  island  in  the  inland  and  not  in  the  sea,  as 
O'Donovan  and  his  copyists  would  have  it. 

Secondly,  the  situation  of  the  crannoge,  lying  partly  in  Dartry, 
O'Rorke's  territory,  partly  in  Carbury,  the  territory  of  the  Lord 
of  Carbury,  and  quite  close  to  Drumcliff,  the  abode  of  the  erenagh 
O'Hennessy,  is  just  the  central  situation  which  would  be  selected 
for  the  conference  of  the  two  chiefs  and  the  erenagh.  This 
consideration  struck  the  writer  so  forcibly,  that  he  concluded  the 
crannoge  to  be  the  scene  of  the  tragedy,  even  before  he  fell  in 
with  the  statement  of  the  Book  of  Fenagh,  which  seems  quite 
decretorial  on  the  subject. 

Lastly  then,  and  chiefly,  our  river  is  expressly  called  the  Lainne 
in  the  Book  of  Fenagh,  where  we  read  of  one  of  the  O'Rorkes  : — 

•'  That  Cu  will  be  an  erector  of  churches. 
I  will  tell  you  his  territory : 
The  mild  belted  Cu  will  possess 
From  Bun-Lainne  to  Lemain."  * 

In  the  last  line  the  author  lays  down  the  limits  of  Breffny, 
or  O'Rorke's  country;  and,  as  the  Four  Masters  themselves, 
when  describing  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  Archdeacon  of 
Breffny,  fix  these  limits  as  Drumcliff,  on  the  one  side,  and  Kells 
on  the  other,  f  it  follows  that  Bun-Lainne,  the  mouth  of  the 
Lainne,  J  stands  for  Drumcliff,  and  Lemhain  for  Kells  ;  Lemhain 
being,  apparently,  the  Blackwater  of  Meath,  which  rises  in 
Lough  Ramor,  passes  through  Kells,  and  mingles  at  Navan 
with  the  Boyne. 

*The  Book  of  Fenagh.— By  W.  M.  Hennessy,  M.R.I.A.,  andD.  H.  Kelly, 
M.R.I.A.  Pages  77-78. 

f  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1296.  Maelpcter  O'Duigenan,  Archdeacon  of 
Breif ny,  from  Drumcliff  to  Kells. 

£  The  mouths  of  all  the  smaller  rivers  in  this  part  of  the  country  are  called 
— as  Bunduff,  Bundrowes,  Bunbreunoge,  Bunina,  Bunlainne,  etc. 


492  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


This  river  was  called  Sele  in  St.  Patrick's  time.  *  Colgan  has 
the  following  note  on  the  passage  in  which  it  is  so  called  : — 
"  Hodie  fluvius  hie  Abhan-dhubh,  id  est,fluvius  niger  appellatur." 
It  is  not  hard  to  conjecture  how  Sele  became  Lemhain.  By 
adding  the  word  abhain,  we  get  Sele-abhain,  the  river  Sele, 
which,  from  the  general  tendency  of  time  to  shorten  words, 
would  soon  change,  first,  into  Slemhain  (Sele-abhain,)  and,  then, 
into  Lemhain. 

Major  Wood  Martin  would  identify  Inis-na-Lainne  with  Inis- 
murray,  and  seems  to  think  he  has  made  an  important  discovery 
in  connection  with  the  subject ;  for,  in  a  note  to  the  fourth  Chapter 
of  his  History,  page  168,  he  writes  : — "  Since  this  chapter  has  gone 
through  the  press,  a  closer  examination  of  the  map,  made  in 
1609,  of  the  Sligo  and  Donegal  coasts,  disclosed  the  interesting 
fact  that  Inismurray  was  therein  described  [as  Enish  Humae, 
or  Murrie.  The  former  name  may  be  a  corruption  of  Inis-na- 
Lainne,  where  in  A.D.  1209"  (should  be  1029,)  "the  Erenagh  of 
Drumcliff  and  sixty  other  persons  were  burned  to  death."  This 
is  all  he  says  in  support  of  his  peculiar  view  ;  and  how  it  goes  to 
show  the  identity  of  the  two  islands  mentioned,  others,  perhaps, 
may  be  able  to  make  out,  but  the  present  writer  "  gives  it  up." 

It  may  be  that  Major  "Wood  Martin  meant  his  suggestion  as  a 
joke,  for  the  purpose  of  "  sending  the  fool  further,"  for  Inis- 
murray is  absolutely  the  last  spot  in  the  neighbourhood  that 
could  be  selected  for  the  conference  in  question.  The  difficulty 
of  getting  into  the  island,  even  in  the  fine  sailing  or  rowing  craft 
of  our  own  time,  and  the  danger  of  being  weather-bound  when 
got  in,  prevent  tourists,  and  most  other  people,  from  venturing 
across  the  sound  at  present ;  but  the  transport  of  the  Lord  of 
Dartry,  the  Lord  of  Carbury,  and  the  Erenagh  of  Drumcliff,  with 
their  suite  of  sixty,  or  two  hundred  and  forty,  attendants,  in  the 
tiny  currachsof  the  eleventh  century,  would  have  been,  in  those 
times,  an  operation  quite  as  extraordinary  and  sensational  as 
Professor  Baldwin's  journey,  per  parachute,  in  our  own  days, 
from  his  balloon  to  terra  firma. 

*  Trias  Thaumaturga,  p.  129 Wilde's  Boyne  and  Blackivater,  p.  137. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  493 


And  supposing,  per  impossible,  this  host  of  people  assembled 
in  Inismurray,  and  a  fire  broken  out  among  them,  they  would 
surely  have  room  enough  in  the  three  hundred  acres  around 
them  to  get  out  of  harm's  way.  The  conjecture,  then,  under 
consideration,  whether  meant  in  jest  or  in  earnest,  is  nothing 
short  of  fantastic  in  all  its  parts. 

Coming  back,  now,  to  the  writer's  contention,  it  is  confirmed 
by  the  name,  Lough  Dolan,  given  in  the  Down  Survey  maps,  to 
Glencar  lake.  At  first  view  it  would  look  as  if  Lough  Dolan  was 
so  called  from  some  person  or  family  named  Dolan  ;  but,  as  no 
such  person  or  family  is  known  to  have  ever  had  any  connexion 
with  the  district,  another  explanation  must  be  searched  for ;  and 
the  most  probable,  indeed,  the  only  probable,  explanation,  that 
suggests  itself,  is  to  regard  the  second  syllable,  Ian,  in  Dolan,  as 
the  essential  part  of  the  name,  the  "  Do  "  being,  probably,  an 
English  corruption  of  Dubh  (whose  most  usual  English  forms, 
according  to  Dr.  Joyce,  are  duff,  doo,  and  du),  the  compound 
word  thus  signifying,  the  black  or  dark  Lan,  or  Lainne,  or  Lana, 
for  the  name  appears  under  each  of  these  forms.  Nor  would 
black  or  dark  be  an  inappropriate  epithet,  as  the  lake  proper, 
owing  to  the  towering  mountain  on  either  side,  wears  occasion- 
ally a  somewhat  gloomy  look. 

From  all  this,  it  is  abundantly  clear  that  Inis-na-Lainne  is 
the  crannoge  referred  to  above ;  and  this  fact,  once  ascertained, 
it  is  easy  enough  to  understand  the  loss  of  life  that  ensued,  and 
was  inevitable,  in  so  confined  and  crowded  an  area. 

Further  on,  a  conjecture  will  be  offered,  as  to  the  origin  of  the 
name  Lan,  Lana,  or  Lainne,  of  which  nobody  seems  to  know 
anything. 

The  tragedy  of  1029  was  near  being  repeated  in  1541,  the 
actors,  at  the  latter  date,  being,  probably,  moved  to  act  by  the 
example  of  1029.  At  both  times,  the  eastern  crannoge  of  the 
island  belonged  to  the  O'Rorkes  ;  and  one  branch  of  the  family 
having  taken  it  by  force  from  another,  two  sons  of  the  dispossessed 
chief  carne  stealthily  by  night,  and  set  fire  to  it.  The  fire, 
fortunately,  was  immediately  discovered,  and  got  under ;  while 


494  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


the  incendiaries  having  been  pursued  on  the  lake,  one  of  them 
was  drowned,  and  the  other  captured  and  hanged.* 

The  part  of  Glencar  which  is  contained  in  the  county  Sligo, 
belonged  to  the  O'Connors  Sligo,  and  was  held  in  1606  by 
Phelim  O'Connor  ;  and  we  learn  from  the  Book  of  Distributions 
that  the  O'Connors  lost  it  after  1641,  and  that  Glendallan  and 
Lislahely  were  reserved  for  Pious  Uses,  with  the  exception  of  9 
acres,  not  specified,  which  were  granted  to  Roger  Parke.f 

As  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  Glendallan,  John  O'Donovan 
and  others  derive  it  from  a  man  named  Dalian,  Glendallan  being^ 
according  to  them,  "  Dalian's  Glen  ; "  J  but  it  is  not  less  likely 
that  it  means  the  "  glen  of  the  pillar  stone."  O'Donovan  him- 
self explains  the  alias  name  of  Glendallan,  namely  Glencar,  in 
Irish  gleann  a  chairthe,  as  signifying  the  glen  of  the  pillar 
stone ;  and  as  dallan  as  well  as  cairthe  means  a  monumental 
stone,§  it  is  reasonable  to  give  the  word  that  sense  here,  thus 
allowing  two  words  which  designate  the  same  object,  to  have  the 
same  signification.  This,  perhaps,  is  more  natural  than  to 


*  The  eastern  crannoge  on  the  Lough  of  Glenn  Dallain  was  taken  by  the  sons 
of  Donnell,  son  of  Donnell  O'Rourke,  from  Donough,  the  son  of  Donough 
O'Rourke.  In  some  time  after  this,  the  sons  of  Donogh  O'Rourke,  i.e.  Donnell 
and  Fergannain,  made  an  attack  upon  the  crannog,  and  privately  set  fire  to  the 
town  ;  but  that  thing  being  discovered  and  perceived,  they  were  pursued  upon 
the  lake,  and  overtaken  by  the  sons  of  Donnell.  Fergannain,  the  son  of 
Donough,  was  slain  and  drowned ;  and  Donnell  was  taken  and  afterwards 
hanged  by  the  sons  of  Donnell,  son  of  Donough  O'Rourke. — Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters,  1541. 

tin  an  Inquisition  taken  atRosslee,  on  the  29th  December,  1616,  concerning 
the  lands  of  the  county  Sligo,  the  jury  find  "  that  Phelim  O'Connor  is  seized  in 
demesne  as  of  fee,  and  in  full  possession  of  the  town  and  lands  of  Glendallan, 
the  quarter  of  Glendallan,  the  town  and  lands  of  Lislahely,  the  quarter  of 
Lislahely,  with  their  appurtenances,  in  the  barony  of  Carbury."  And  the 
Book  of  Distributions  tells  us,  that  "  Lislahely,  consisting  of  six  different  parcels, 
being  respectively  213  acres,  54  acres,  16  acres,  68  acres,  17  acres,  and  322  acres, 
having  belonged  to  Cahall  O'Connor,  was  reserved  for  pious  uses,  as  was  also 
(excepting  9  acres  granted  to  Roger  Park)  the  whole  of  Glencarbry  (Glendallan), 
consisting  of  106  acres,  9  acres,  154  acres,  155  acres,  37  acres,  38  acres,  and 
68  acres,  belonging  also  to  Cahall  O'Connor. 

t  Note  under  A.D.  1541  in  O'Donovan's  Four  Masters. 

§  Ulster  Journal  of  Archaeology.    Vol.  VIII,,  p.  115. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  495 


conjure  up  the  unknown  Dalian,  who  may  seem,  to  some,  to  be 
invented  for  the  occasion. 

The  term,  however,  may,  under  the  circumstances,  have 
either  sense — the  glen  of  the  pillar  stone,  or  the  Glen  of  Dalian 
— for  we  learn  from  the  Genealogia  Sanctorum  (cap.  18),  that 
a  man  named  Dalian,  father  of  St.  Loman  of  Lough  Gill,  lived  in. 
this  neighbourhood,  after  whom  the  valley  may  have  been  called. 

And  this  suggests  a  word  or  two  on  the  saints  or  holy 
persons,  whose  names  are  associated  with  Glendallan.  They 
are  three — Talulla,  Osnata,  and  Muadhnata,  daughters  of 
Nadfraich,  and  sisters  of  one  another,  as  well  as  of  St.  Molaisse 
of  Devenish ;  and  their  joint  festival  is  set  down  in  the  Martyr- 
ologies  for  the  Gth  January.  Talulla  travelled  south,  and 
became  abbess  of  Kildare ;  Osnata  lived  at  the  eastern  end  of 
Glencar,  leaving  her  name  to  the  parish  of  Killasnet,  Cille  Osnat ; 
and  Muadhnata  had  her  residence  in  a  part  of  Carbury  called 
Caille,  which  has  not  been  identified,  but  which  the  writer 
believes  to  be  Bally na gall iagh.  For  Ballynagalliagh  is  only  a 
corruption  of  Bally-na-Caillech,  the  town  of  the  nuns  ;  and  as 
caillech,  a  nun,  comes  from  caille,  the  veil  that  nuns  take  on 
becoming  religious,  it  is  not  hard  to  understand  how  this  word, 
in  combination  or  composition  with  some  other,  which  it  lost  in 
the  course  of  time,  came  to  designate  a  habitation  of  nuns.  In 
his  interesting  notice  of  St.  Osnata,  Father  O'Hanlon  observes, 
"  There  was  a  tradition  among  the  people  that  the  old  church  of 
Killasnat  was  first  built  in  Castletown  townland ;  but  that  it 
was  afterwards  removed  and  built  in  one  night,  where  the  old 
churchyard,  called  Killasnat,  is  now  situated  .  .  .  This, 
however,  is  a  worthless  tradition,  although  Irish  local  traditions 
are,  in  the  main,  highly  valuable."  This,  after  all,  may  not  be 
so  meaningless  a  tradition  as  it  looks;  for,  very  probably,  it 
signifies  that  the  religious  establishment  of  Killasnat  is  a 
daughter  of  that  of  Ballynagalliagh,  which  lies  near  Castletown, 
and  that  Muadhnata's  community  having  become  numerous, 
she  sent  some  of  the  nuns,  under  her  sister  Osnata,  to  found  a 
n  ew  house  at  the  eastern  side  of  the  glen. 


496  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Ballynagalliagh  itself  depended  on,  and  belonged  to,  the 
Benedictine  nunnery  of  Kilcreunat,  in  Galway.  This  we  learn 
from  a  chancery  inquisition  of  James  I.  sped  at  Sligo,  under 
Geoffry  Osbaldston,  on  the  26th  April,  1606,  in  which  the  jurors 
find  "  that  there  belonged  to  the  late  nunnery  of  Kilcrenat,  in 
the  county  Galway,  1J  qr.  called  Ballenagallagh,  and  certain 
other  small  spots  of  land  in  the  town  of  Dromclive,  in  the 
barony  of  Carbury."  It  is  nowhere  stated  when  or  how, 
Ballynagalliagh  became  connected  with  Kilcreunat,  but,  probably, 
it  was  very  soon  after  the  foundation  of  the  latter  by  Cathal 
Crovderg  O'Conor  (A.D.  1200)  ;  for  the  descendants  of  Cathal's 
uncle,  Brian  Luignech,  were  then  at  Castletown,  and  would 
naturally  like  to  have  near  them  an  offshoot  of  their  great 
relative's  establishment.  By  this  time,  too,  the  spiritual  family 
of  Muadhnata  may  have  died  out,  or  may  have  needed  an 
infusion  of  new  blood,  as  sometimes  happened  in  those  times 
with  other  religious  establishments;  and,  in  either  case,  it 
would  have  been  easy  for  the  nuns  of  Kilcreunat  to  effect  a 
settlement  at  Ballynagalliagh.  At  the  suppression,  Kilcreunat, 
with  its  dependencies,  including  Ballynagalliagh,  was  granted 
to  Richard,  Earl  of  Clanrickarde. 

Coming  back,  now,  to  Drumcliff,  we  find  that  the  place  was 
once  called  Cnoc  na  teagli,  though  we  are  not  informed  why  it 
was  so  called.  The  only  name  of  the  place,  however,  which 
we  meet  with,  in  the  annals  of  the  country,  is  that  by  which 
it  is  known  at  the  present  day,  Drumcliff.  Lying  far  out  of 
the  former  highway  between  Connaught  and  Ulster,  the 
district  was  little  known,  and  less  frequented,  till  St.  Columba 
founded  there  one  of  his  many  churches — an  event  which  Dr. 
Reeves,  who  has  taken  special  pains  to  elucidate  the  acts  of 
the  saint,  fixes  at  574,*  immediately  after  the  close  of  the 
famous  convention  at  Drumceat,  and  immediately  before  the 
saint's  visit  to  Ballysadare,  where,  as  we  read  in  Colgan's 
Life  of  St.  Farannan,f  he  was  met  by  the  "chief  saints"  of  Ireland. 

*  Eeeve's  Adamnan,  p.  37 

t  Acta  Sanctorum.— Vita  S.  Farannani,  pp.  339,  340. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  497 


Even  apart  from  its  picturesque  surroundings,  there  is  some- 
thing striking  in  the  immediate  location  of  Drumcliff.  Stretched 
between  the  western  end  of  Glencar  valley  and  the  sea,  a  man 
of  travel  or  reading,  in  looking  at  it,  would  almost  fancy  it  to  be 
the  dried  up  delta  of  some  great  river,  which  once  rolled  on 
between  Castlegal  and  Slieve  Mor,  and  discharged  its  waters 
into  the  sea  at  the  mouth  of  the  valley. 

It  is  admitted,  on  all  hands,  that  Drumcliff  was  a  place  of 
some  importance  in  times  long  past.  Some  writers  affecting  to 
give  particulars,  for  which  they  have  neither  authority  nor  data, 
would  have  us  believe  that,  exclusive  of  stone  structures,  it 
counted  fifteen  hundred  wooden  houses.*  But  this  is  only 
ridiculous  exaggeration,  there  being  hardly  fifteen  hundred 
houses  or  huts  of  any  kind,  in  the  times  referred  to,  throughout 
the  entire  district  comprised  in  the  present  county  Sligo.  It  is 
bounce  like  this,  that  has  brought  discredit  on  much  of  our  early 
history. 

As  far  as  we  know  now,  whatever  importance  Drumcliff 
could  boast  of,  was  of  a  purely  ecclesiastical  character,  and  it  fared 
with  it  as  with  most  other  religious  houses  in  Ireland.  When  a 
monastery  prospered,  population  flowed  towards  it : — consisting, 
first,  of  young  persons  who  came  to  join  the  community  as 
novices  ;  secondly,  of  such  lay  persons  as  were  wanted  for  agri- 
cultural or  other  works,  always  in  progress  about  the  place ; 
thirdly,  of  the  poor  and  sick,  who  were  fed,  and  clothed,  and 
cared,  by  the  religious ;  and  fourthly,  as  in  the  case  of  Armagh, 
Bangor,  Clonfert,  Lismore,  and  other  large  establishments, 
famed  for  their  schools,  by  students  whom  love  of  learning  attracted 
from  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  even  from  other  countries. 
Considering  that  Drumcliff  was  the  only  religious  house  of  note  in 
Carbury,  in  early  times,  large  numbers  of  the  first  three  classes 

*  Dublin  Penny  Journal,  Vol.  I. ,  p.  64.  This  article  gives  "  several  magnificent 
stone  churches  and  fifteen  hundred  houses  of  oak ;"  but  it  refers  only  to  the 
"  village  tradition,"  as  its  authority.  Dr.  Petrie  seems  to  be  the  writer  of  the 
article.  Certain  other  writers,  however,  set  the  statement  down  as  fact  without 
any  qualification. 

VOL.   I.  2  I 


498  HISTORY   OF    SLIGO. 


must  have  flocked  to  it ;  and  it  is  said,  though  the  evidence  on 
the  point  is  by  no  means  conclusive,  that  it  imparted  "  a  higher 
kind  of  education,"  something  analogous  to  what  is  now  called 
a  college  education,  and  thus  became  the  centre  of  flocks  of 
students.  In  any  case  the  abodes  of  the  lay  people  did  not  form 
a  town  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  with  its  shops,  and 
business,  and  commerce,  but  were  rather  an  extension  of  the 
monastery,  as  the  inhabitants  depended  altogether  on  the 
religious  establishment  for  employment  and  subsistence. 

There  is  nothing  known  of  the  monastery  during  the  two  or 
three  centuries  which  followed  its  foundation.  It  is  this 
absence  of  knowledge  that  makes  Dr.  Lanigan  lean  to  the 
belief,  that  Columba  is  not  to  be  accounted  its  founder  ;*  but 
the  arguments,  on  the  other  side,  are  so  strong,  as  to  leave  hardly 
any  room  for  doubt  on  the  subject. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Life  of  St.  Farannan  informs  us  expressly, 
that  Saint  Columba,  after  the  convention  of  Drumceat,  founded 
a  religious  house  in  Carbury ;  while  all  writers  seem  agreed, 
that  this  house  can  be  no  other  than  that  of  Drurncliff. 

Secondly,  the  tradition  of  the  locality,  and  of  the  whole 
country,  counts  Columba  to  be  the  founder. 

Thirdly,  abbots  of  Drumcliff  are  styled  in  our  annals, 
"comarbs  of  Columba,"  which  seems  decisive  on  the  matter,  as 
in  Irish  writings,  the  comarb  of  an  abbot  or  of  a  bishop,  always 
means  the  formal  successor  in  office  of  that  abbot  or  bishop. 

Fourthly,  it  is  represented  by  old  writers  as  a  favourite  resort 
of  the  saintf 

And  some  probability  may  be  drawn  from  the  very  situation 
of  Drumcliff;  for  it  must  have  formed  part  of  the  great  battle- 
field of  Cooldruman  ;  and  nothing  is  more  natural,  or  more 
in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  religious  men  at  all  times,  than 
that  Columba,  on  revisiting  those  blood-stained  scenes,  in  which, 

*  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Ireland,  Vol.  II.,  p.  132. 
f  "  Beloved  to  my  heart  also  in  the  west, 
Drumcliff  at  Culcinne's  strand." 
— Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba.     By  Dr.  Reeves,  p.  289. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  499 


unfortunately,  he  had  been  a  chief  actor,  and  thinking,  like 
Judas  Machahaeus,  well  and  religiously  of  the  resurrection,* 
should  desire  to  leave  for  ever  on  the  spot  a  place  of  prayer, 
where  petitions  should  be  constantly  put  up  for  the  souls  of 
those  who  had  fallen  in  that  ill-starred  engagement.  Putting 
all  those  arguments  together,  and  without  dwelling  on  others, 
which  might  be  adduced,  such  as  the  authority  of  ancient  and 
modern  biographers,  the  man  must  be  abnormally  prone  to 
doubt — as  Dr.  Lanigan  sometimes  shows  himself — who  does  not 
admit  their  conclusiveness.  To  insist  on  further  proof  for 
primitive  facts,  like  that  under  consideration,  would  be  only  to 
unsettle  nine-tenths  of  our  early  Irish  history. 

Nor  is  the  silence,  regarding  Drumcliff,  for  the  first  three 
centuries  of  its  existence  a  matter  of  surprise.  The  place  being 
then  singularly  secluded,  and  remote  from  thoroughfares,  it  was 
almost  a  matter  of  course  that  it  should  remain  long  unnoticed 
and  unknown,  unlike  other  monasteries  of  Saint  Columba, 
which  stood  in  the  most  frequented  parts  of  Ireland,  and  thus 
attracted  attention  from  the  outset.  And  only  for  the  accident, 
that  a  local  chief  of  distinction  was  buried  there  in  871,  the 
monastery  might  have  continued  much  longer  without  mention  ; 
the  connexion  of  Dunadhach's  burial  with  Drumcliff,  thus 
suggesting  how  the  place  had  escaped  notice  for  the  two  preceding 
centuries,  for  want  of  some  similar  occurrence.  Even  after  Dun- 
adhach's burial,  fifty  years  more  elapsed  before  mention  is  again 
made  of  Drumcliff;  but  after  that  time,  references  are  sufficiently 
frequent  and  regular  in  old  authorities,  as  will  appear  from  the 
list  given  below,  which  the  writer  has  taken  pains  to  make  as 
complete  as  possible.f 

*  Second  Book  of  Machabees,  c.  xii.,  v.  43. 

t574.  Mothorianus,  first  abbot O'Donnell's  Lif e  of  St.  Columba;  lib.  1, cap.  60. 

871.  Dunadhach,  son  of  Raghallach,  lord  of  Cinel-Cairbre-Mor,  died  j  of  his 

death  was  said : — 
"  Dunadhach,  a  noble  protection,  a  famous  man  by  whom  hostages  were 

held, 

A  pious  soldier  of  the  race  of  Conn  (lies  interred),  under  hazel  crosses  at 
Drumcliff."  —Annals  of  the  Four  Masters. 


500  HISTORY  OF  SLIGO. 


The  chief  authority  in  the  monastery,  as  well  temporal  as 
spiritual,  seems  to  have  become,  very  early,  hereditary  in  two 

921.  Maelpadraig,  son  of  Moran,  abbot  of  Drumcliff  and  Ardstraw,  died. — 

Four  Masters. 

930.  Maengal,  son  of  Becan,  abbot  of  Drumcliff,  died, — Four  Masters. 
950.  Flann  O'Becan,  arinech  of  Drumcliff;  Scribe  of  Ireland,  died.— Four 

Masters. 
1029.  Aengus  O'Hennessy,  airinech  of  Drumcliff,  burned  in  Inis-na-lainne. — 

Four  Masters. 

1053.  Murchadh  O'Beollain,  airinech  of  Drumcliff,  died. — Four  Masters. 
1177.  Died,  Murroh  O'Bollan,  comarb  of  Drumcliff  and  St.   Columb.— Arch- 
dall's  Monasticon  Hiberntcum,  p.  631. 

1187.  Drumcliff  was  plundered  by  the  son  of  Melaghlin  O'Rorke,  Lord  of  Hy 

Briuin  and  Conmaicne. — Four  Masters. 

And  St.  Columbkille  wrought  a  remarkable  miracle  ;  for  the  son  of 
Melaghlin  O'Rorke  was  killed  in  Conmaicne  a  fortnight  afterwards, 
and  the  eyes  of  the  son  of  Cathal  O'Rorke  were  put  out  by  O'Muldory 
in  revenge  of  Columbkille.  One  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  sons  of 
Melaghlin's  retainers  were  also  killed,  throughout  Conmaicne  and 
Carbury  of  Drumcliff. — Four  Masters. 

1188.  Rory  O'Cannanain  was  slain  by  O'Muldory,  after  having  been  enticed  out 

from  the  middle  of  Drumcliff. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1201.  Great  numbers  of  Northerns  slain  between  Ballysadare  and  Drumcliff. — 
Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1213.  Finn  O'Brolloghan'went  to  Carbury  of  Drumcliff  to  collect  O'Doimell's 
tribute. — Four  Masters. 

1225.  Awley  O'Beollain,  principal  upholder  of  the  hospitality  and  guest  houses 
of  Erinn,  died  in  this  year.— Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1252.  Malachy  O'Beollain,  comarb  of  Columbkille  in  Drumcliff,  i.e.,  the  man 
of  greatest  prosperity,  wealth,  and  esteem,  of  greatest  charity,  hospi- 
tality, and  honour,  in  his  own  time  in  Erinn,  died  after  the  triumph 
of  devotion  and  penitence. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1254.  Maelfinnen  O'Beollain,  coarb  of  Drumcliff,  died. — Four  Masters. 

1258.  Hostages  of  all  the  Hy-Briun  from  Kells  to  Drumcliff,  delivered  up  to 
Hugh  O'Neil.— Four  Masters. 

1267.  A  depredation  by  the  English  of  West  Connaught  in  Carbury  of  Drum- 
cliff. — Four  Masters. 

1296.  Maelpeter  O'Duigenan,  archdeacon  of  Breffny,  from  Drumcliff  to  Kells, 
died. — Four  Masters. 

1306.  Nicholas  O'Donaghy  (i.e.,  who  was  a  priest  and  pure  virgin  in  Drum- 
cliff)  was  killed  without  cause  or  offence,  by  the  Gerran-dubh  of  the 
Barretts,  who  subjected  him  to  a  martyrs  death. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 
To  this  entry  is  added,  in  Annals  of  Ulster,  "  and  whosoever  saieth  a 
Pater  Noster  for  his  soule,  he  hath  26  dayes  forgiveness  of  his  sins  as 
often  as  he  eayth  it." — Note  in  O'Donovan's  edition  of  Four  Masters, 
sub  anno. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  501 


families;  for,  with  the  exception  of  "Maelpadraig,  son  of  Moran, 
abbot  of  Drumcliff ;"  "  Flann,  grandson  of  Becan,  erenagh  of 
Drumcliff;"  and  "Aengus  O'Hennessy,  erenagh  of  Drumcliff;' 
the  other  rulers  of  the  establishment  belonged  to  one  or  other 
of  the  two  families,  O'Beollain  and  O'Coineil,  and  are  called  at 
one  time  "abbots,"  at  another,  "coarbs  of  Drumcliff  and 
Columbkille ;  "*  and  again,  "  erenaghs  and  biatachs  "  of  Drum- 
cliff.  It  is  plain  that  the  two  families  of  O'Beollain  and 
O'Coineoil  were  of  great  note  in  Carbury  in  their  day ;  and  we 
have  a  lasting  proof  of  their  consequence  in  the  many  places  of 
the  neighbourhood  to  which  they  have  left  their  names,  as 
Ballyconnell,  near  Lissadell ;  Gregg  Connell,  to  the  east  of 
Lower  Rosses;  Rossbeolain,  one  of  the  old  names  of  Upper 
Bosses;  Ballybeolain  and  Templebeolain,  near  Raghly;  and 
Inisbeolain — insula  Beolain — now  known  as  Horse  Island. 

"With  the  exception  of  the  outrage  of  the  O'Rorkes,  in  1187, 
which  was  so  signally  avenged,  and  a  depredation  by  the 
English  in  1267,  Drumcliff  appears  to  have  had  a  rather 
exceptional  career  of  peace  and  prosperity  from  its  foundation, 
in  574,  to  the  fourteenth  century.  This  will  appear  the  more 
extraordinary,  when  we  consider  the  melancholy  record  of 
burned  and  plundered  churches  which  one  meets  with  in  almost 
every  page  of  the  annals  of  that  period.  For  this  comparative 
exemption  from  outrage,  the  monastery  was  indebted  mainly  to 
its  then  outlying  and  unfrequented  position. 

1315.  The  daughter  of  Manus  O'Conor,  wife  of  O'Donnell,  attacked  the 
churches  of  Drumcliff,  where  several  of  the  clerics  and  comarbs  of 
Drumcliff  were  plundered  by  her. — Annals  of  Loch  Ce. 

1317.  A  battle  on  the  brink  of  the  Methenagh  (i.e.,  a  river)  of  Drumcliff. — 
Four  Masters. 

1330.  Maelisa  O'Ooinel,  coarb  of  Drumcliff,  died.— Four  Masters. 

1355.  Conor  Mac  Consnava,  Bishop  of  Breif ny,  from  Drumcliff  to  Kells,  died. 
— Four  Masters. 

1362.  O'Beollain,  coarb  of  Drumcliff,  died.— Four  Masters. 

1416.  Maurice  O'Coineoil,  coarb  of  Drumcliff,  was  burned  in  his  own  house  by 
robbers. — Four  Masters. 

1503.  O'Beollain,  coarb  of  St.  Columbkille  at  Drumcliff,  died.— Four  Masters, 
Annals  of  Four  Masters.— 1252,  1254,  1330,  1362,  1416,  1503. 


I*  AUD 


502  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


After  the  fourteenth  century,  when  it  had  become  a  place  of 
great  resort,  Drumcliff  had  its  share  of  the  calamities,  which 
were  going;  as  in  1315,  when  Dervorgilla,  the  wife  of  O'Donnell, 
who  belonged  herself  to  the  turbulent  family  of  Murtough 
Muimnech  O'Conor,  attacked  its  churches,  and  plundered  its 
monks;  and  in  1416,  when  its  abbot,  Maurice  O'Coineoil,  was 
burned  in  his  house  by  robbers,  probably  with  the  object  of 
destroying  the  witness  of  their  crime. 

We  may,  perhaps,  infer  from  these  facts,  that  Drumcliff 
had  attained  its  zenith  in  the  thirteenth  century.  And  the 
inference  derives  no  small  probability  from  the  entries  in  our 
annals;  for,  from  one,  under  1213,  we  learn  that  the  place 
had  then  become  so  famous,  as  to  change  the  name  of  Carbury 
Mor,  into  Carbury  of  Drumcliff ;  and  of  Calry  of  Lough  Gill,  into 
Calry  of  Drumcliff;  and  from  another,  under  1252,  that  its  abbot, 
in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  was  "  a  man  of  great 
esteem  and  wealth,  the  most  illustrious  for  hospitality,  and  the 
most  honoured  and  venerated  by  the  English  and  Irish  in  his 
time."  Indeed,  the  wealth  of  Drumcliff  was  so  well  known, 
that  the  fact  is  recorded  in  song*  an  d  story. 

The  decline  of  the  place  must  have  set  in  soon  after  the  death 
of  Malachy  O'Beollain ;  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  references  of 
the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  between  this  time  and  1503, 
to  show  a  continuance  of  the  prosperity  of  his  day;  and,  as 
there  is  no  mention  at  all  of  the  monastery  in  the  native  annal- 
ists, after  1503,  it  is  likely  that  it  ceased  to  exist,  or  had  become 
of  little  note  soon  after  that  date — which  is  the  more  probable, 
as,  in  a  list  of  the  abbeys  in  the  county  Sligo,  which  contained 
monks  in  1574,  Drumcliff  is  not  included,  f 

*  *'  On  Derry's  plains — in  rich  Drumcliff — 

Throughout  Armagh  the  Great,  renowned 

In  olden  years, 

No  day  could  pass,  but  woman's  grief 
Would  rain  upon  the  burial  ground, 
Fresh  floods  of  tears  !  " 

— Lament  for  the  Princes,  in  Rev.  C.  P.  Meehau's 

Fate  and  Fortunes  of  the  Earls,  p.  513. 
t  Calendar  of  Carew  MSS.,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  146. 


HISTORY   OF  SLIGO.  503 


The  frustum  of  a  round  tower,  a  stone  cross,  and  the  shaft 
of  a  stone  cross,  which  still  exist  on  the  grounds,  date,  apparently, 
from  before  the  thirteenth  century.  As  to  the  tower,  this  seems 
certain,  for  the  rude  style  of  the  building,  the  round  lumpish 
stones  used,  and  the  absence  of  all  ornament  in  the  way  of 
cornice  or  carving,  would  indicate  the  tenth  century,  or  there- 
abouts, as  the  date  of  the  erection. 

There  is  nothing  about  this  structure  in  our  annalists,  except, 
that  it  was  struck  by  lightning  in  1396  ("  Campanile,  i.e., 
Cloightech  D^^umcliabJi,  fulmine  destructum  " — Mac  Firbis — in 
O'Donovan's  Four  Masters,  A.D.  1396);  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe,  that  it  suffered  more  from  man  than  from  the  electric 
fluid;  for  it  is  said  in  the  neighbourhood,  that  the  walls  were 
ripped  down  to  find  stones  for  the  bridge  of  Drumcliff. 

And  the  cross  may  be  referred  to  the  same  time,  for  though 
it  is  well  finished,  being  decorated  with  sculptured  ornaments 
and  groups  of  figures — of  considerable  merit  both  in  design  and 
workmanship — this  is  not  incompatible  with  the  age  assigned  ;  for 
the  crosses  of  Monasterboice,  which  contain  still  finer  carving, 
come,  according  to  antiquaries,  from  the  middle  of  the  ninth  or 
the  first  quarter  of  the  tenth  century.*  The  shaft  of  the  other 
cross,  which  is  devoid  of  ornament  of  any  kind,  and  was  never 
touched  with  chisel,  appears  to  be  of  a  still  earlier  origin.f  As 
Drumcliff  was  so  famous  for  its  crosses,  that  it  got  the  name  of 
Drumclialh  na  g  cros — Drumcliff  of  the  crosses  J— we  may 
presume,  that  it  began  early  to  practise  the  art  of  carving  stone 
crosses,  and  acquired  early  a  proficiency  in  the  art. 

These  three  objects  are  all  that  remain  to  attest  the  ancient 
importance  of  Drumcliff.  The  wood  that  covered  the  whole 
region,  has  perished,  root  and  branch;  the  considerable  number 
of  oak  houses — not  to  say  with  the  village  tradition, the  "fifteen 
hundred" — have  not  left  a  trace  on  the  spot;  and  the  "several 

*  Ulster  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Vol.  I.,  p.  56. 
t  This  seems  natural,  though  there  is  no  proof  of  it. 

I  Letter  of  Thomas  O'Connor,  in  the  Ordnance  Survey  Letters  of  the  county 
Sligo,  dated,  Sligo,  Sept.  8th,  1836. 


504  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


magnificent  stone  churches,"  are  as  invisible,  both  in  themselves 
and  in  remains  of  any  kind,  as  if  they  lay  buried  in  the  bottom 
of  the  neighbouring  sea — not  a  single  stone  or  morsel  of  mortar 
surviving  to  witness  their  past  existence.  Indeed,  the  ground 
looks  so  unlike  ground  which  had  served  for  building  purposes, 
that  it  would  be  hard  to  think  it  ever  supported  stone  and 
mortar  structures,  only  that  the  inquisition,  already  quoted,* 
supplies  proof  of  the  fact,  the  only  direct  proof,  perhaps,  addu- 
cible ;  for  this  authority  avers,  that  at  the  time  of  the  inquisition,! 
there  stood  at  Drumcliff,  "  a  certain  vaulted  stone  house,  called 
Tagh  O'Chonneil,"  and  also,  "  a  church  and  a  house,  belonging 
to  the  parson  of  Drumcliff,  to  the  west  end  of  the  church." 

In  the  whole  barony  of  Carbury  there  is  not  a  more  interest- 
ing spot,  excepting,  perhaps,  Sligo  and  Drumcliff,  than  the 
townland  of  CASTLETOWN,  though  this  assertion  is  sure  to  come 
by  surprise  on  most  readers,  so  little  known,  or  rather  so  utterly 
unknown,  at  the  present  day,  is  the  history  of  the  place,  even 
in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.  Leaning  against  the  slope  of 
Benbulben,  some  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
Castletown  is  exceptionally  picturesque  and  salubrious.  The 
view  from  it  is  at  once  extended,  varied,  and  of  rare  beauty — 
taking  in  sea,  mountain  ranges,  several  stretches  of  undulating 
ground — diversified  with  plantations,  crop  land,  green  sward,  and 
near  the  coast,  round  sandy  dunes  ;  while  the  bracing  air  of  the 
lofty  mountain  slopes,  impregnated  with  the  ozone  of  the  sea, 
is  specially  fitted  to  foster  health  and  vigour,  to  give  energy  to 
the  brain,  action  to  the  heart  and  lungs,  and  bloom  to  the  cheek. 
If  inhabitants  of  mountain  districts  have  been  always  remark- 
able for  high  spirit  and  deeds  of  daring,  one  would  expect 
Castletown  to  produce  men  of  superior  stamp,  in  regard  both  to 
thought  and  action ;  and  in  this  expectation  one  would  not  be 
disappointed,  as  even  an  outline  of  the  history  of  the  spot,  when 
now  set  under  the  eye,  will  amply  prove. 

*  Chancery  Inquisition,  sped  at  Sligo.     By  Geoffry  Osbaldston,  26th  April, 
1606. 
t  A.D.  1606. 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  505 


This  place  may  be  called  the  cradle  of  the  O'Connors  Sligo. 
Rocked  in  its  invigorating  atmosphere,  and  reared  amid  the 
stirring  associations,  in  which  it  abounded,  of  the  renowned 
Conal  Gulban  and  the  Fenians,  that  family  produced  men  as 
hardy  and  soaring  as  the  falcon,  which  continued  in  the  con- 
genial heights  of  the  adjoining  Benbulben,  long  after  eagles  had 
disappeared  from  most  of  their  other  haunts  throughout  the 
country.  Cathal  O'Connor,  Rory  O'Connor,  Cathal  Og  O'Connor, 
and  other  members  of  the  Sligo  branch  of  the  Sil-Murray, 
second  to  no  men  in  Ireland  in  their  day,  for  enterprise  and 
heroic  conduct,  were  all  born  and  bred  in  Castletown. 

It  was  to  this  eligible  spot  the  survivors  of  the  vanquished 
O'Conors  retired  after  the  battle  of  Crich-Carbury.  In  this 
secluded  angle  of  the  country  they  settled  down,  in  order  to 
increase  their  flocks  and  herds,  with  the  view  of  being  one  day 
powerful  enough  to  assert  that  claim  to  the  territory  of  Carbury 
which  they  had  just  failed  to  make  good. 

And  for  their  purpose,  the  region  of  Castletown  was  the  most 
desirable  they  could  select.  There  they  were  beyond  the  reach  of 
those  hostile  movements,  which  were  constantly  going  on  in  the 
more  open  parts  of  the  country.  There  too,  in  the  midst  of  a  vast 
wood,  with  several  clear  spaces  of  sweet  and  abundant  pasture,they 
had  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  food  for  their  cattle,  as  well  as 
shade  in  summer,  and  shelter  in  winter.  And  there  too,  from 
the  elevated  position  of  their  residence,  they  might  easily  descry 
the  approach  of  raiders  or  robbers — but  too  common  at  the 
time — and  thus  be  able  to  protect  their  stock,  whether  the 
marauders  came  from  the  east,  through  the  valley  of  Giencar, 
or  from  some  other  direction,  by  the  plain  of  Magherow.  In 
such  a  situation  and  with  such  surroundings,  it  is  little  wonder 
that  their  flocks  and  herds  soon  multiplied  to  numbers  almost 
beyond  counting. 

The  first  name  by  which  the  Castletown  district  was  called, 
is  Fassa-coille,  which  signifies  the  waste  or  unoccupied  place  of 
the  wood.  This  name  it  must  have  retained  for  centuries,  for 
it  is  only  in  1536  it  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  Annals,  as 


506  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Braghaid-coille,  a  word  which  means  the  neck  of  the  wood,  and 
which  is  a  most  appropriate  designation,  as  Braghaid-coille 
holds,  in  regard  to  the  low-land  on  one  side,  and  Benbulben 
mountain  on  the  other,  the  exact  position  which  the  neck 
occupies  in  relation  to  the  human  body  and  head.  Braghaid- 
coille  soon  changed  into  Bradhiliy,  and  it  is  so-called,  and  marked 
with  a  castle,  in  the  map  of  Norden,  who  places  it  under  the 
south-west  brow  of  Benbulben,  its  exact  position.  Bradhiliy 
gave  way  in  a  short  time  to  Bradcullen,  which,  in  its  turn,  was 
modified  to  Bradcullium,  the  form  under  which  the  name 
appears  in  the  Down  Survey.  It  is  strange  that  there  is  no- 
memory  of  those  names  now  in  the  locality,  nor  any  trace  of 
them,  except  in  a  small  rath-like  enclosure,  which  is  commonly 
called  Kilty,  i.e.,  Coillte  or  Coille — the  wood — this  part  of  the 
name  surviving  all  the  changes  the  original  Fassa-coille  has 
undergone  in  its  passage  down  to  the  present  time. 

The  name,  Castletown,  has  still  to  be  accounted  for,  as  the 
Ordnance  Survey  writers  have  left  us  in  the  dark,  in  which  they 
found  themselves.  The  writer  believes  that  light  may  be  derived 
in  this  matter  from  an  entry  in  the  Annals  of  Loch  Ce,  under 
the  year  1316,  an  entry  which  hitherto  has  been  misunderstood  ; 
it  runs  as  follows: — "Hugh  O'Donnell  and  all  the  Cinel 
Connell  mustered  a  large  army,  and  they  came  again  into  Car- 
bury,  and  went  to  Caislen-Conor  on  this  occasion ;  and  Bory,. 
son  of  Donnell  O'Conor,  separated  from  his  own  brothers,  and 
made  peace  with  O'Donnell,  and  gave  him  the  lordship  of 
Carbury."  The  Caislen-Conor  here  mentioned,  is  certainly  the 
original  of  Castletown ;  though  other  writers,  and  among  them 
Mr.  Hennessy  himself,  with  his  superior  knowledge  and  great 
ability,  but  lacking  that  personal  acquaintance  with  the  district, 
without  which  errors  in  descriptive  topography  are  inevitable, 
suppose  the  place  here  referred  to,  to  be  Caislen-Conor,  or 
rather  Caislen-mic-Conor,*  of  Tireragh. 

*  In  the  works  of  the  Mac  Firbises  this  castle  is  always  called  Caislen-mic- 
Conor,  or  Dun-mi c- Conor,  as  also  in  the  Four  Masters,  a  fact  which,  of  itself, 
would  show  the  place  to  be  different  from  the  Caislen-Conor  of  the  entry  under 
consideration.— O'Donovan's  Hy  Fiachrach,  p.  282. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  507 

But  a  little  reflection  would  show  the  error  of  this  supposition. 
On  other  occasions,  when  any  chief  of  the  O'Donnells  went  to 
Tireragh,  it  is  told  how  he  went  there,  what  he  did  in  it,  and 
how  he  got  back,  but  here,  except  the  mention  of  Caislen- 
Conor,  there  is  not  a  single  circumstance  to  indicate  that  he  set 
foot  in  that  district.  On  the  contrary,  every  word  in  the  entry 
• — "  he  came  again  into  Carhury,"  and  "  went  to  Caislen-Conor," 
and  "  Rory  gave  him  the  lordship  of  Carbury  " — goes  to  prove, 
that  the  expedition  was  limited  to  Carbury,  that  it  was  under- 
taken for  the  sake  of  Carbury,  and  that  its  object  was 
accomplished,  when  Rory,  the  eldest  of  the  O'Conors,  conceded 
the  lordship  of  Carbury.  The  remark,  "  he  went  to  Caislen- 
Conor  on  this  occasion,"  merely  tells  us  that  O'Donnell,  instead 
of  keeping,  as  in  former  expeditions,  to  the  beaten  route,  de- 
scribed elsewhere,*  along  the  sea  coast  and  across  the  strand, 
turned  aside  from  it,  and  passed  to  the  fortress  of  the  O'Conors 
— Caislen-Conor — on  the  slopes  of  Benbulben.  We  may  then 
conclude  with  certainty,  that  the  castle  of  Castletown  existed 
in  1316,  and,  with  great  probability,  that  it  was  erected  in  the 
latter  half  of  that  century,  when  the  example  of  the  Fitz- 
Geralds,  at  Sligo,  could  hardly  fail  to  induce  the  O'Conors  to 
build ;  and  the  qualities  of  the  small  fragment  which  still 
remains  of  the  original  structure,  with  its  grouting,  its  shell 
mortar,  and  other  indications  of  great  antiquity,  go  far  to  estab- 
lish this  early  date,  or  perhaps,  a  still  earlier  one. 

The  O'Connors  had  ample  means  at  the  time  to  build  such  a 
structure,  as  also  intelligence  and  spirit  enough  to  see  and  feel 
its  utility,  or,  rather,  its  necessity.  The  funeral  of  Donnell 
supplies  abundant  proof  of  their  means ;  for  it  proves  them  to 
be  inferior  in  possessions  of  all  kinds  to  no  family  in  the  country  ; 
and  as  to  their  intelligence  and  spirit,  their  constant  contact 
with  the  monastery  of  Drumcliff,  which  stood  at  their  door,  and 
which  was  one  of  the  most  flourishing  establishments  of  the 
period,  could  hardly  fail  to  bring  them  correct  ideas  of  what  was 
alike  due  to  their  own  dignity,  and  needed  for  their  security. 
*  See  Four  Masters,  1536. 


508  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Their  own  conduct,  too,  proves  them  to  have  been  men  who 
could  appreciate  the  requirements  of  their  position,  Though 
they  were  willing,  and  even  anxious  to  live  at  peace  with  all  the 
world,  they  were  not  the  less  able  or  inclined  to  punish  whoever 
should  molest  them,  as  they  proved  on  one  memorable  occasion, 
when,  after  hurling  back  the  combined  attack  of  all  their  enemies, 
they  chased  the  assailants  through  Connaught,  dethroned  the 
leader  of  them,  who  was  the  king  of  the  province,  and  put  on 
the  throne,  in  his  room,  one  of  themselves,  Cathal,  as  energetic 
a  prince  as  ever  bore  rule  in  this  part  of  Ireland.  Even  if  there 
were  no  other  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  stone  and  mortar  castle 
at  Fassa-Coille  in  those  early  times,  this  character  *of  the 
O'Connors  of  the  day,  would  supply  a  strong  one,  for  such  men 
could  not  be  content  to  pass  their  lives  in  the  huts  and  dens 
which  were  the  common  habitations  of  the  time.  While  the 
heads  of  the  family  occupied  the  castle,  the  rest  of  the  clan  had 
to  put  up  with  such  frail  and  humble  dwellings  as  cabins  of 
clay,  or  booths  of  wattles.  It  was  in  this  way  the  population  of 
the  district  was  lodged  ;  and  that  population  must  have  been 
exceptionally  large,  considering  the  well- manned  expeditions 
which  sometimes  set  out  from  Castletown.  While  other  parts 
of  the  country  were  far  less  populous  then  than  now,  there  is 
good  reason  to  believe  that  Fassa-Coille  was  more  populous  in 
these  times  than  it  has  ever  been  since,  though  the  district  has 
been  at  all  times,  at  least  till  very  recently,  the  most  thickly 
peopled  region  in  Carbury,  excluding  the  town  of  Sligo.  A 
strong  proof  of  this  populousness  is  the  number  of  raths  or  forts, 
which  the  neighbourhood  still  contains,  a  larger  number  than 
any  other  spot  of  equal  size  in  this  part  of  the  country,  though 
some  of  those  that  formerly  existed  must  have  been  levelled. 
These  raths,  and  their  surroundings,  must  always  awaken 
stirring  thoughts  in  the  minds  of  persons  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  place,  for  it  was  on  them  were  formed  the  most 
successful  captains  that  North  Connaught  has  produced,  as  it  was 
on  the  adjoining  slopes,  and  amid  the  surrounding  woods,  were 
trained  those  intrepid  and  dashing  youths,  who  swept  through 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  509 


all  the  regions  of  Connaught  in  many  an  irresistible  foray,  and 
were  known,  from  the  Erne  to  the  mouth  of  the  Shannon,  as 
"  the  young  soldiers  of  Carbury." 

It  is  pretty  certain  that  Caislen  Conor  continued  to  be  occupied 
by  the  O'Connors  as  long  as  it  remained  habitable.  Some  people 
in  the  district,  including  the  farmer  who  holds  the  site  of  the 
castle,  say  they  heard  that  the  last  occupant  of  the  building  was 
a  person  named  Hart  Gormley,  but  this  statement,  however  it 
may  have  originated,  has  no  support  in  the  authentic  annals  of 
the  country,  which  always  represent  the  O'Connors  as  holding 
the  place.  They  held  it  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  17th 
century  ;  for,  in  an  inquisition  taken  at  Rosslee,  on  the  29th 
December,  1616,  the  jury  find  "the  castle,  town,  and  lands"  of 
Bradcullen,  and  the  quarter  called  Carrowbradcullen,  to  be  "  part 
of  the  inheritance  of  Callough  O'Connor,  now  his  Majesty's 
ward,  by  descent  from  his  father,  Daniel  O'Connor,  and  his 
uncle,  Sir  Donough  O'Connor."  They  held  it  in  the  middle  of 
that  century,  at  the  time  of  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton's  raid.  Sir 
Frederick  having  heard,  from  his  spies,  that  two  bodies  of  Ulster 
troops  had  joined  Captain  Teige  Mac  Phelim  O'Connor  at  Brad- 
cullen, sent  a  force  of  horse  and  foot  to  assail  them.  The  attack, 
as  generally  happened  with  Sir  Frederick,  was  successful,  and  the 
Manorhamilton  men  slew  about  60  of  the  Irish,  "  with  all  their 
captains,"  this  latter  circumstance  proving  that  the  native 
leaders  were  brave,  if  unfortunate,  and  preferred  death  to  flight. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  victors  practised  their  accustomed 
barbarity,  and,  not  satisfied  with  the  60  men  and  all  the 
captains,  "  killed  also  Captain  Teige  O'Connor's  wife."  After 
despatching  the  birds,  they  destroyed  the  nest  "  by  burning 
the  town  of  Bradcullen,  belonging  to  O'Connor,  with  divers 
other  small  villages  neere  it."  It  is  a  striking  proof  of  the 
vitality  of  Bradcullen  or  Castletown,  that  even  the  breath  of 
Hamilton  could  not  blast  it;  for,  in  the  Cromwellian  Census 
of  1659,  it  is  still  set  down  as  the  most  populous  place  in 
the  barony  of  Carbury,  after  the  town  of  Sligo,  the  population 
being  fifty-five — four  English  and  fifty-one  Irish — the  next 


510  HISTORY    OF   SLIGO. 


highest  population  in  the  barony  being  twenty-eight  in  the 
Rosses,  twenty-seven  in  Grange,  twenty-four  in  Bunduff,  and 
so  on,  in  diminishing  numbers,  through  the  rest  of  the  district. 
Though  it  is  abundantly  clear,  from  the  Rosslee  inquisition, 
and  from  the  account  of  the  Hamilton  raid,  that  the  O'Connors 
retained  possession  of  Castletown,  as  long  as  they  were  left 
their  other  estates  in  the  county,  additional  evidence  of  the 
fact,  if  required,  might  be  had  in  the  Book  of  Distributions 
belonging  to  the  Down  Survey,  where  it  is  recorded,  that 
"  Bradcullen,  Cloonengeere,  Cartron  Comyn,  alias  Sleavany, 
Coyle,  and  LisdnfF,  Urlare,  and  Cullaghmore,  Carrowcurragh, 
Carrowclogh,  Barnaribben,  and  Cartron  William  Oge,"  were 
granted  away,  at  the  Restoration,  from  O'Connor  Sligo  to 
Robert  Parke. 

These  fine  lands  passed,  at  the  close  of  the  17th  century,  by 
marriage,  from  the  Parkes  to  the  Gores,  in  the  person  of  Sir 
Francis  Gore,  of  Ardtermon  and  Sligo,  who  married  Anne, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  Robert  Parke,  and  thus  came  into  her 
father's  estate.  By  this  means  Sir  Francis  obtained  the  property 
in  an  easier,  pleasanter,  and,  probably,  honester  way,  than  some 
other  landlords  of  the  county  obtained  their  land;  for  the 
marriage  ring  did  for  him,  what  the  sword  or  chicane  did 
for  them ;  so  that  the  following  distich,  addressed  to  an 
Austrian  monarch,  who  was  indebted  to  marriage  for  most  of 
his  kingdom,  might,  mutatis  mutandis,  have  been  applied  to 
the  lucky  bridegroom  : — 

"  Bella  gerant  alii ;  tn,  Felix  Austria,  nube ; 
Quas  dat  Mars  aliis,  dat  tibi  regna  Venus." 

The  side  and  foot  of  Benbulben,  comprising  much  of  these 
lands,  though  of  no  very  great  extent,  varies  much  in  qualities 
and  appearance.  Ascending  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  to  the 
summit  of  the  mountain,  one  seems  to  pass,  in  respect  to  herbage 
and  plant  forms,  through  different  latitudes,  as  one  passes  through 
the  three  or  four  zones  or  belts,  into  which  the  elevation  may  be 
divided. 


HISTORY   OF   SLIGO.  511 


Near  the  water's  edge,  the  texture  of  the  sod  is  spongy, 
the  herbage  coarse,  and  the  colour  rather  russet ;  though  even 
in  this  belt  the  fertility  of  the  region  shows  itself,  as  the  grasses, 
though  of  an  inferior  kind,  are  fresher  and  richer  than  those 
found  in  similar  situations  elsewhere. 

The  second  and  principal  belt,  stretching  along  the  foot  of 
the  mountain,  and  rising  up  a  good  way  on  its  side,  is  a  rich, 
cultivated,  and  beautiful  region.  The  soil  is  good  for  tillage, 
but  so  excellent  for  meadow,  that  it  produces  twice  as  much  hay 
as  ordinary  land.  The  exceptional  fertility  of  this  zone,  is  due 
to  the  limestone  of  the  mountain,  which,  after  being  disintegra- 
ted by  the  weather,  is  carried  down  in  considerable  quantities 
by  the  descending  streamlets,  and  incorporated  with  the  low 
lying  lands,  thus  reminding  one  of  Yirgil's  lines  : — 

"  At  quae  pinguis  humus,  dulcique  uligine  Iseta, 
Quique  frequens  herbis,  et  fertilis  ubere  campus, 
Qualem  saepe  cava  mentis  convalle  solemus 
Despicere  ;  hue  summis  liquuntur  rupibus  amnes, 
Felicemque  trahunt  limum."— Georgica,  Lib.  II.,  184-8. 

The  advantages  bestowed  by  nature  on  this  favoured  district, 
have  been  duly  appreciated  by  man,  as  is  proved  by  its  having 
been  always  the  most  thickly  peopled  spot,  for  its  extent,  in 
Carbury.  Now,  too,  the  population,  relatively  to  that  of  other 
places,  is  large,  but  not  to  such  an  extent  as  to  prevent  the 
holdings  from  being  ample  enough  to  enable  the  inhabitants 
"  to  live  and  thrive."  In  this  beautiful  spot — il  va  sans  dire — 
there  is  no  village  of  the  kind  described  by  Carleton,  "  with  its 
series  of  dunghills,  each  with  its  concomitant  sink  of  green  rotten 
water,"  nor  indeed  any  village  at  all;  for  the  houses,  which  are 
substantial,  roomy,  and  tastefully  covered  with  straw,  are  not 
connected,  but  stand  on  detached  and  picturesque  sites,  all  the 
way  from  Rathcormick  to  Barnaribben.  What  adds  to  the 
beauty  of  the  landscape,  as  well  as  to  the  comfort  of  the  inmates, 
is,  that  each  house  is  retired  somewhat  from  the  road,  and  sur- 
rounded with  at  least  enough  planting,  to  serve  for  shade  in 
summer,  and  shelter  in  winter,  thus  recalling  the  picture  of  the 


512  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


Scripture  scene,  when  "  Juda  and  Israel  dwelt,  every  one  under 
his  vine,  and  under  his  fig  tree." 

It  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  state,  that  these  external  indica- 
tions of  well-being,  are  realized  in  the  interiors  of  the  cottages 
— the  furniture  being  commodious,  the  food  wholesome  and 
abundant,  and  the  dress,  both  of  males  and  females,  neat 
and  becoming.  It  would  not  be  hard  to  meet,  here  and 
there,  in  other  places,  individual  farmers  of  far  greater  means 
than  any  one  in  this  district,  but  it  would  not  be  easy  to 
find  elsewhere,  on  an  equal  area,  so  large  a  number  of  well-to-do 
landholders ;  and  as  the  state  of  agricultural  tenants,  in  a  great 
part  of  Ireland,  is  very  much  the  reverse  of  all  this,  it  would  be 
a  great  national  benefit  to  multiply,  through  the  country,  dis- 
tricts with  the  same  social  conditions  as  the  region  of  Castle- 
town.  It  is  to  this  region  Giolla  losa  Mor  Mac  Firbis  refers  in 
the  lines : — 

"  A  small  land  of  most  extensive  tillage, 
Of  the  green  land  of  Ben  Gulban." 

The  third  belt,  comprising  all  the  area  between  the  zone  we 
have  been  considering  and  the  naked  rock,  contains  no  houses, 
and  very  little  tillage,  but  runs  up  in  long,  well  marked,  quad- 
rangular stripes  of  pasture  ground.  The  grass  of  these  stripes 
is  of  a  vivid  green,  and  of  a  quality  greatly  relished  by  sheep, 
these  animals  having  it  all  to  themselves,  with  the  exception  of 
what  grows  low  down  on  the  slopes,  which  is  shared  by  light- 
footed  cattle,  though  one  or  more  of  them,  now  and  then, 
lose  their  balance  and  their  footing  in  the  attempt  to  reach 
a  dainty  mouthful.  A  sheep,  too,  occasionally  tumbles  down. 

The  fourth  and  last  belt  is  perpendicular  naked  rock,  with, 
here  and  there,  a  patch  of  heath.  Even  in  this  zone  streaks  of 
green  grass  occur ;  for  a  kind  of  contest  for  possession  seems  to 
be  going  on  in  spots  between  it  and  the  heath  ;  and  the  genial 
temperature  of  Benbulben,  even  at  this  high  elevation,  is  shown 
by  the  fact,  that  in  some  fissures  where  grasses  have  earth  to 
germinate  in,  lines  of  green  diversify  and  dominate  the  dark- 
coloured  plants. 


HISTORY  OF   SLIGO.  513 


The  summit  of  Benbulben  range  is  a  table  land  of  consider- 
able extent,  the  highest  point  of  Benbulben  proper  being  1,721 
feet  above  sea  level,  of  Benweeskin,  1,963,  and  of  Truskmore, 
2,115.  The  botany  of  the  range  is  singularly  rich  in  rare 
Irish  plants  ;  and  in  ferns,  both  as  to  number  and  varieties,  it  is 
said  to  surpass  every  other  district  in  Ireland. 

It  is  a  great  loss  to  science — a  loss  naturally  more  felt  in  Sligo 
than  elsewhere — that  Mr.  Corry  was  prevented  by  his  tragic  and 
much  lamented  death  on  Lough-gill,  from  completing  his  explora- 
tion of  the  botany  of  Benbulben,  a  service  for  which  he  hadreceived 
a  money  grant  from  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  and  which  he 
was  engaged  in  executing,  at  the  time  he  met  his  sad  end. 
The  curious  will  find  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Academy,  for  July  1884,  a  list  of  136  plants  of  different  species 
which  he  gathered  on  the  range,  and  which  include  the  follow- 
ing Alpine  species : — 

Sedum  Rhodiola.  Oxyna  reniformis. 

Asplenium  Viride.  Polygonum  viviparum. 

Arabia  petraea.  Salix  herbacea. 

Draba  incana.  Aspiduim  lonchitia. 

Arenaria  ciliata.  Canex  rigida. 

Saxifraga  nivalis.  Hieracium  anglicum. 

Poa  Alpina.  Juniperus  nana. 

Silenae  acaulis.  Hieracuim  iricum. 

Saxifraga  aizoides.  Hieracuim  gibsoni. 

Dryas  octopetala.  Selaginella  selaginoidas. 

The  surface  of  the  summit  is  broken  in  some  places  by  holes, 
against  which  it  behoves  one  to  be  on  one's  guard,  as,  from  their 
being  covered  by  the  rich  vegetation  around  the  edges,  more 
than  one  unwary  person  has  fallen  into  them.  The  country 
people  are  at  a  loss  to  account  for  these  borings,  but  it  is  plain 
that  they  have  been  produced  by  the  action  of  water.  The  rain 
percolating  through  crevices,  and  between  strata,  wears  away  and 
hollows  the  mountain  limestone.  It  takes  time  to  do  this,  but, 
as  "  gutta  cavat  lapidem  non  vi  sed  saepe  cadendo,"  it  is  easy  to 
conceive  how,  time  enough  being  given,  the  rain,  falling  for  ages 
VOL.  i.  2  K 


514  HISTORY   OF   SLIGO. 


on  the  same  area,  scoops  out  the  rock  by  means  of  the  carbonic 
acid  gas  which  the  water  contains.  Geologists  trace  to  the  same 
cause  effects  of  much  greater  magnitude,  such  as  the  channelling 
of  underground  rivers,  the  sinking  of  lake  beds,  and  the  forma- 
tion of  caverns. 

Of  the  last  named  effect  we  have  a  remarkable  example, 
on  this  very  range,  in  the  great  cavern  that  looks  down  on  the 
valley  of  Gleniffe,  at  the  north-east  side  of  Benbulben.  The 
entrance  of  this  huge  grotto  is  thirty  or  forty  feet  wide,  by, 
at  least,  fifty  high ;  and,  with  the  spacious  apartments  to  the 
right  and  left  as  you  enter,  the  lofty  gallery  in  front,  and  the 
corridors  or  passages  here  and  there,  the  interior  has  the  features 
of  some  lordly  mansion  ;  or,  if  the  great  opens  to  the  right  and 
left  were  removed  further  back,  so  as  to  resemble  transepts,  the 
gallery  would  then  take  the  place  of  a  nave,  and  the  whole 
would  rise  up  before  you,  like  some  great  cathedral  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  picturesquely  vaulted  and  groined  in  genuine,  solid  stone, 
and  not,  like  the  degenerate  edifices  of  our  own  days,  in  what 
Pugin  styles  the  "  abomination  of  lath  and  plaster."  Such  is 
the  actual  present  appearance  of  the  place  ;  but  as  the  work  of 
erosion  is  going  constantly  on;  as  stalactites,  without  number, 
are,  after  the  manner  of  gigantic  leeches,  always  swallowing 
down  the  substance  of  the  roof,  while  immense  stalagmites  are 
eating  away  the  sides  and  floor,  he  must  be  a  very  bold  man 
that  would  undertake  to  forecast  the  appearance  of  the  cavern 
at  the  end  of,  let  us  say,  a  hundred  thousand  years  to  come 

Benbulben  and  its  surroundings  have  given  rise  to  more  tnan 
one  romantic  legend.  Like  many  other  places,  Drumcliff  had, 
in  the  olden  time,  its  local  Piast  or  spectre,  and  was  freed  from 
the  monster  by  Finn  Me  Cumhall  (pronounced  Me  Coole),  the 
Irish  Hercules;  and  it  was  on  the  slopes  of  Benbulben  that 
Diarmuid  O'Duibhne,  after  a  thousand  hair-breadth  'scapes, 
north,  south,  east,  and  west,  at  last  lost  his  charmed  life  in  an 
encounter  with  the  enchanted  boar  of  the  mountain.  The  con- 
flict is  described  at  great  length  in  the  Fenian  tale,  styled 
"  The  Pursuit  of  Diarmuid  and  Grainne,"  of  which  the  following 


HISTORY  OF  SLIGO.  515 


extract,  containing  the  catastrophe  of  the  tragedy,  will  suffi- 
ciently acquaint  the  reader  with  the  grotesque  exhibition  of 
which  Benbulben  is  taken  to  have  been  the  scene  about  sixteen 
hundred  years  ago  : — "  The  wild  boar  then  came  up  the  face  of 
the  mountain  with  the  Fenians  after  him ;  Diarmuid  struck  a 
heavy  stroke  upon  the  wild  boar's  back,  stoutly  and  full  bravely, 
yet  he  cut  not  a  single  bristle  upon  him,  but  made  two  pieces 
of  his  sword.  Then  the  wild  boar  made  a  fearless  spring  upon 
Diarmuid,  so  that  he  tripped  over  him  and  made  him  fall  head- 
long ;  and  when  he  was  risen  up  again,  it  happened  that  one  of 
his  legs  was  on  either  side  of  the  wild  boar,  and  his  face  back- 
ward toward  the  hinder  part  of  the  wild  boar.  The  wild 
boar  fled  down  the  fall  of  the  hill,  and  was  unable  to  put 
Diarmuid  off  during  that  space.  After  that  he  fled  away  until 
he  reached  Assaroe,  and,  having  reached  the  red  stream,  he  gave 
three  nimble  leaps  across  the  fall,  hither  and  thither,  yet  he 
could  not  put  off  Diarmuid  during  that  space ;  and  he  came 
back  by  the  same  path  until  he  reached  up  to  the  height  of  the 
mountain  again.  And  when  he  had  reached  the  top  of  the 
hill  he  put  Diarmuid  off  his  hack ;  and  when  he  was  fallen  to 
the  earth  the  wild  boar  made  an  eager  exceeding  mighty  spring 
upon  him,  and  ripped  out  his  bowels  and  his  entrails,  so  that 
they  fell  about  his  legs.  Howbeit,  as  the  boar  was  leaving  the 
tidach,  Diarmuid  made  a  triumphant  cast  of  the  hilt  of  the 
sword,  that  chanced  to  be  still  in  his  hand,  so  that  he  dashed 
out  his  brains  and  left  him  dead  without  life.  Therefore,  Rath 
na  h-Amhrann  is  the  name  of  the  place  that  is  on  the  top  of 
the  mountain  from  that  time  to  this." 

Many  will  learn  with  surprise  that  this  group,  or  range  of 
mountains  lay,  for  ages,  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  and  that, 
vast  as  it  is,  it  is  composed,  in  great  measure,  like  the  coral 
islands  of  the  South  Sea,  of  fossil  fish,  as  well  shells  as  animal 
matter.  And  yet  there  is  little  or  no  room  for  doubt  on  the 
subject ;  for  specimens  of  the  stone,  when  examined  under 
the  microscope,  by  competent  judges,  exhibit,  unmistakeably, 


122055 

516  HISTORY  OF   SLIGO. 


this  formation.  Professor  Hull,  an  authority,  second  to  none, 
on  the  geology  of  Ireland,  bears  witness,  after  careful  exami- 
nation and  study,  that  the  remains  of  marine  animals  form 
the  chief  constituents  of  Benbulben.* 

*  Close  examination  of  hand  specimens,  and,  especially,  thin  transparent 
sections,  placed  under  the  microscope,  will  show  that  this  great  calcareous 
formation  consists,  almost  entirely,  of  the  shells  and  skeletons  of  marine 
animals,  such  as  corals,  crinoids,  foraminifera,  and  molluscs.  Even  the 
denser  masses  which,  to  the  eye,  exhibit  no  appearance  of  organic  structure, 
when  examined  under  the  microscope,  in  the  manner  above  described,  are 
almost  certain  to  show  a  field  full  of  animal  forms,  chiefly  those  of  foraminifera 
and  crinoids.  The  formation,  therefore,  notwithstanding  its  great  thickness, 
must  be  considered  as  the  work  of  marine  animals,  which  lived  in  the  waters 
of  the  clear  ocean  of  the  Carboniferous  period,  generally  far  removed  from  land, 
and  uncontamiuated  by  muddy  or  sandy  sediment.  —  The  Physical  Geology  and 
Geography  of  Ireland.— By  Edward  Hull,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  pp.  32,  33. 


END   OF  VOL.   I. 


Printed  by  EDMUND  BURKE  &  Co.,  61  &  62  Great  Strand  Street,  Dublin. 


DA  990  .56  07  v.l  SMC 
O'Rorke,  Terence. 

The  history  of  SHgos 
town  and  county.  — 
AKB-3309